A Juventude Estudantil pelo olhar dos jornais do Triângulo Mineiro: entre a tutela e a subversão (décadas de 1950 e 1960)

Abstract

This research in the History and Historiography of Education approaches the representations of actions and practices related to high school and university students in newspapers that circulated from 1950 to 1969 in three of the main municipalities of Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil that accompanied the process of national modernization during this period: Ituiutaba, Uberaba and Uberlândia. The meaning attributed here to representations, part of the perspective defended by Roger Chartier (1990), who understands these as narrative and symbolic constructions of a given reality, composed of cultural and normative elements that also transform them, motivated by the group interests that shape them. In this way, it is understood that the ideas-images conveyed by these newspapers were linked to concrete experiences so that they would have social acceptance by their reading public. The temporal cut (1950s and 1960s) was marked by intense political, social, cultural and educational events together with the effervescence of the student movement throughout the country and in different parts of the world. In this scenario, the young student gained space as an important and influential political actor, agent of social transformations. For the development of this work, a detailed analysis of approximately 850 articles distributed among advertisements, articles, columns, releases, chronicles, images, news, and poems was carried out in nine periodicals of the referred context: Cidade de Ituiutaba, Correio Católico, Correio de Uberlândia, Correio do Pontal, Correio do Triângulo, Folha de Ituiutaba, Lavoura e Comércio, O Repórter and Tribuna de Minas. In addition to the indispensable bibliographic review, works by local memorialist authors, minutes books of Uberaba Student Union and reports of Triângulo Mineiro Central Students’ Directorate were analyzed, in order to cross information with the referred newspapers. Then, the main objective of identifying and discussing key press representations and the interests behind them was reached, concerning student youth. It was found that the circulation of representations referring to high school and university students in Triângulo Mineiro in 1950s and 1960s, among the literate population, influenced (and was influenced) by the forms of sociability. They interfere in relations and in the imaginary, conveying a youthful idea compatible with the interests of the groups that had the power in the political, economic and religious sectors of these places. Such actions also expressed contradictions, so that students were projected sometimes as subjects who should be tutored, sometimes as subversive political actors. However, this thesis aims to demonstrate that an effort prevailed in these publications to moralize the actions of youth, centered on a conservative perspective of the social scenario, especially when students were distinguished by political activism, in an attempt to discipline the conduct of these individuals, with a view to avoid radical changes in the status quo of society. This process was objectified by the literate elites of the region and expressed the national conjuncture.