Call for papers of dossier articles (38th edition, jan.-jun. 2023)
Uses of the past in the writing of history
Ana Elisa Arêdes (Universidade do Porto)
Mareana Mathias (UFRJ)
In the contemporary present, discourses produced by aesthetic and cultural projects and by political and institutional programs continue to seek in historical narrative(s) answers that produce social cohesion and that identify the present in the past and vice-versa. However, this practice is not unprecedented, recent, or restricted to the dynamics we observe in contemporary times. In the history of Brazil, the most illustrious examples rest on the various institutional attempts to create identity(ies) for the country based on a writing of national history and that served models of political-social organization, such as the monarchical model, when Brazil became independent (COSTA, 2019; GUIMARÃES, 2007); and the federative republican model with various specificities related to political projects after the proclamation of the republic (GERTZ, 2017; ZAMORANO, 2017).
Resorting to the "past" to seek answers to the demands of the present and setting argumentative premises that fit the "past" into outlined projects and programs are operations that belong to the writing(s) of history in various contexts and societies. Using these operations, political and aesthetic movements, as well as practices of patrimonialization and archival collection building, institutional and political projects develop narratives that seek in historical events the singularity of a group(s) and the continuity of the past in the present. These narratives gather and transform "facts" into plots and disseminate themselves, in different ways and in different social groups, competing for the status of being truthful (FOUCAULT, 1996; HARTOG, 2011).
Competitors, allies or independents, the narratives participate in disputes of power representation and use various legitimation devices, internal and external to the discourse (CHARTIER, 2014; CHARBEL & AZEVEDO, 2008). In turn, these legitimation devices can, for example, use the elaboration of cultural objects - such as written, iconographic, musical, and audiovisual texts - or the signification of already existing ones; the organization of physical spaces; and the establishment of models of social conduct.
In the historiographical field, the works that analyze narrative disputes and uses of the past articulate several areas and perspectives, as well as contribute to the discussion and refinement of analytical categories. The relevance of the debate about narrative disputes and the uses of the past lies not only in the centrality of the theme for the epistemology of History, but also in the importance of the theme for the current societies, which experience constant crises and intense flows of information. In this case, we can list as an example the debates about the elaboration of museums and exhibitions about Atlantic slavery (ARAUJO, 2021).
With these questions in mind, the Revista Cantareira is calling for articles for the issue "Uses of the past in the writing of history," and thus invites researchers, undergraduate and graduate students to submit original articles that analyze disputes and uses of the past in the service of aesthetic and cultural projects and/or political and institutional programs. This dossier is interested in gathering works developed in several areas of historiography that address questions about the construction and the uses of narratives about determined historical events and periods.
For those who are interested in submitting their articles for the issue, information regarding the norms for publication is available at the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UhPq30g0fXOrK3amnTj_coUyTM1AkNfy/view. Contributions should be sent exclusively via the OJS system. Articles will undergo peer review (https://periodicos.uff.br/cantareira/about) and those approved will be published in issue 2023/1.
Deadline for submission: Septembre 30, 2022 (23:59, Brasília time, UTC/GMT -03:00)
