In this paper, the epigraphs of the first two periodicals circulating in Brazil are discussed as metonymies of the ethical posture taken by each editorial discursive project. From a Bakhtinian dialogic point of view of language, subjective and objective memories are distinguished and, in the game of epigraphs, an interactional process is identified by recovering of different objective memories. The dialogue between institutions actualized by the epigraphs reveals the ethical and discursive tension which founds the Brazilian press sphere and contributes to the construction of national identity possibilities. the memories recovered in Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, a courtly newspaper, sustain an interactional organization oriented by a sense of individuality which feeds hierarchy among subjects and deals with the principle of exclusion in the fundament of social identities. In a different way, the memory recovered in Correio Braziliense, an independent newspaper, deals with a sense of collectiveness which problematizes the notion of people, brings into discussion the character of Brazilian identity and sustains the principle of participation in the construction of national identity. this paper contributes to the theoretical and methodological maturing of sociohistorical researches because it demonstrates, by means of the concept of memory of the object, how the research which deals with the historicity of the object is also oriented by what the object says about the phenomenon investigated.
memory; ethics; dialogism