Visões da modernidade: atividade política e intelectual na imprensa do Vale do Paraíba Oitocentista – Vassouras (1873-1889)

Abstract

The work aims to understand the state of art of the fluminense Vale do Paraíba press in the last decades of the XIX century. The central hypothesis is that the print newspapers can be understood as a mean that reveals cultural and political questions from that period of time, the study focus as well in the press actions to build images of it as as agent that promoted modernity. The press that developed in Vale do Paraíba is being studied by historians that aim to understand all the forces at work in the Empire of Brazil. The chronological cutting focused on the analysis between 1873, when the first journal as published in Vassouras, and 1889, the year that monarchical regime ended. Analysis revealed that time interval selected was rich to historical research, because it was a period of transformation in Brazilian society, so there were many important political and social changings. The period was marked by the development of the republican thought and the deepening of the critics to the slavery, as well as the commotion regarding the abolitionist campaign; the period passes through May thirteenth and the reaction of the lordly class of this region, a class that maintained coffee economy anchored in slave work. It was observed that it was a period when different projects for this old Brazil were generated; due to the analysis of the journals, it was possible to see how these projects were echoed through the quill of these editors from Vassouras journal press. The press took sides and established political programmes, even if it would defend, through the creation each journal program, a supposed impartiality. The journalistic activity in the fluminense Vale do Paraíba, focusing specially the city of Vassouras, created and disseminated a political and intellectual programme that operated decisively in the cultural local scene. That intellectual-editors discourse pointed to a future and triggered multiple visions of modernity. It is clear that before the creation of a local press there was a circulation of a number of journals in the region, printed in the Court or in nearby cities. Vassouras press provided a possibility to discuss local, regional and national questions. From the decade of 1870 on, the public space as permeated by a myriad of social groups, medium stratus pushed the creation of the press and worked on it until the end of the 1880s. Finally, it can be seen that public opinion began to be oriented by the actions of the local press.