“Pelo Paraná maior”: school representations on a 1920s film

Abstract:

This article is based on the film “Pelo Paraná maior”, produced by the government of Paraná in 1927, which presented information about the state, its economy, part of public education, and some educational establishments at the time. The text addresses aspects of school material culture, exploring visual elements such as furniture, uniforms, architecture, school organization, and rites, proposing relationships with the rhetoric of modernity, education, and Escola Nova. In the analysis, we use theoretical references linked to the perspective of modernity studies by Marshall Berman, school culture by Dominique Julia, school material culture by Eliane Peres, Gizele de Souza, Agustín Escolano Benito, and Escola Nova by Diana Gonçalves Vidal. We also ground the text on Roger Chartier's approach to cultural history and the transnational one by Martin Lawn.

Keywords:
cinema; photography; New School; transnational history