Nos trilhos da infância: ser criança no trem

Abstract

More than transporting people, the train tells stories. Stories that happen and gain meaning from the moment the train is composed of subjects. Much more than a large steel structure, I am interested in seeing the train as a chronotope, where meetings take place, where daily life is built. And what stories tell the children's experiences on the train? Attention to the presence of children in the daily routine of metropolitan rail transport in Rio de Janeiro and realize which childhood physiognomies show themselves to the researcher is the objective of this research. How does childhood appear to the researcher? What childhood experiences circulate on the tracks? What does it mean to be a child on the train? How to create research methodologies that can handle the theme? With observation and recording as methodological strategies, the construction of the research is divided into two interconnected moments: 1) The moment when I am affected by the way in which a certain childhood experience is shown, and from the moment I realize this situation, start to observe it for research purposes; 2) The moment when the records of these observations, after a work process, reveal themselves as chronicles, thus forming an academic-literary text. In order to continue my journey, I count mainly on the inspirations of Walter Benjamin's philosophy, on Italo Calvino's literature, with the notes about the use of the chronicle thought by Antonio Candido and on the considerations of Rita Ribes about the research with children.