Entre Júpiter e Prometeu, a complexa trajetória de D. Pedro II: um agente no campo científico (1871 - 1891)

Abstract

The dissertation aims to present and discuss new perspectives on the trajectory of d. Pedro II (1825-1891), who ruled Brazil between 1840 and 1889. The emperor is undoubtedly one of the most studied characters in Brazilian history. In this sense, it was necessary a chapter dedicated to the revision and an historical debate, where the diverse profiles of d. Pedro II, from the autobiographical writings to the most recent biographies and scholarly works, were treated in a problematic way, allowing us to mark the novelty of our analysis, mainly based on the extensive and intense reading of the private documents of the Imperial Family, kept by the Imperial Museum. The fundamental intent is to debate the thesis of the theater state, according to which the relation of d. Pedro II with the sciences was an important symbolic capital for the foundation of his political power, and to show that, beyond this aspect, the emperor was indeed an agent in a transnational network of production and circulation of knowledge, appearing as an intellectual, a member of a vast network of sociability, formed especially after his first trip abroad in 1871. In addition, the work aims to underline the participation of d. Pedro II in the debates that involved the configuration of a new scientific paradigm in the XIX century, particularly in relation to the constitution of a new scientific field: the anthropological studies. Finally, the dissertation intends to emphasize how the taking of positions in these intellectual and scientific discussions not only allows to defend d. Pedro II as an intellectual, in opposition to the idea of patron, erudite and dilettante, but also makes possible the perception of the placements and displacements in his trajectory, highlighting the point of inflection in the 1850s, the complexity of his life, as well as his approach to the so-called generation of 1870.