Representações de educação das mulheres no jornal Diário dos Campos na primeira metade do século XX: do habitus de leitura à prática de escrita

Abstract

The theme that guides this investigtion is linked to women’s education. The research problem is the following: What representations of women’s education circulated in the newspaper Diário dos Campos in the process of configuring their reading habitus and their writing practice, in the period between 1909 and 1950? The thesis is that the representations of women’s education integrated the configuration of the reading habitus and the practice of writing incorporated by women who were directly or indirectly associated with the newspaper Diário dos Campos in the first half of the 20th century, expressing both na adherence to domination masculine symbolic as well as a subversion to the traditional symbolic order. By means of an inventory of what women read and wrote in the newspaper Diário dos Campos, a century-old periodical from the city of Ponta Grossa, State of Paraná, we seek to explain womens’s educationa strategies. Thus, this thesis has the general objective of analyzing representations of women’s education, specifically with regard to the reading habitus and the practice of writing in the newspaper Diário dos Campos. In specific terms, the aim is to: Present the constitution of the newspaper Diário dos Campos in the contex of changes at the beginning of the 20th century, notably urbanization, the defense of women’s schooling and the expansion of journalism; problematize the texts written for or about women that conditioned the constitution of the reading habitus; discuss women’s writing practices and their positions in the newspaper Diário dos Campos. From a methodological point of view, this is a historical and qualitative research, of a documentary nature, whose approach is based on analyzes of gender, arising mainly from the contributions of Perrot (1998), Scott (1995) and Beauvoir (1980a, 1980b). It is also based on Pierre Bourdieu (2002, 2004a, 2004b, 2008c), mainly on the concepts of field, capital and habitus, as well as on Roger Chartier’s concept of representation (1991, 2011). The time frame is justified by the collection of the research source itself, which begins in 1909 and ends in 1950, due to changes in content and approaches in relation to reports, articles and mentions of women. It appears that the newspaper Diário dos Campos can be considered as a place of reproduction and alteration of what can be read and written by women, as well as the volume and accumulation of capital, expressed in its four forms – social, symbolic, economic and cultural – constitute fundamental strategies in the struggles for recognition in public space, especially in the field of reading and writing. In other words, some texts reinforced certain representations considered appropriate for women, while others suggested the possibility of establishing new habitus for them. Furthermore, based on some social experiences such as philanthropy and participation in predominantly female associations, women, legitimized by the accumulation of different volumes and types of capital, are able, little by little, to enter the universe of writing, moving from the reading habitus to a practice of writing, going beyond writing textual genres considered appropriate for them and building writing with more autonomy, based on positions on the new social roles they are assuming.