1143 | 516 | The order of the geographical discourse: censorship, nationalism and territory in the Revista Brasileira de Geografia during the Estado Novo (1939-1945)

Since its foundation in 1939, the Revista Brasileira de Geografia (RBG) became the main journal of geography in Brazil. However, despite some studies from the 1990s to nowadays, its role for the comprehension of the history of Brazilian geography is still to be clarified. In this sense, the aim of my paper is to understand its links with the authoritarian government commanded by Getúlio Vargas from 1937 to 1945 called Estado Novo. Given the need of promoting the regime and controlling the adversaries at the same time (which include since the promotion of cultural and scientific events to the imprisonment of translators and writers), in 1939 was created the Press and Propaganda Department (DIP). Following the section of the RBG named Noticiário (News), I will show its close connections with the DIP. In this context, I also analyze how the RBG played an ideological function raised the territory to one of the central axis of the Estado Novo. Through the territory, the RBG disseminated themes such as national unity, centralization of power in the hands of the state, and patriotism. Based on Michel Foucault in terms of methodology and supported both to the historiographical literature concerning the Estado Novo and the sources consulted in the Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação Contemporânea and in the Arquivo Nacional, my conclusion is that the RBG must be recognized as an official vehicle of the Estado Novo, and that geography had a crucial play in the making of the modern Brazil.

Guilherme Ribeiro
Rio de Janeiro Federal Rural University (UFRRJ)

ID Abstract: 516