Malerba

CENTRE FOR
BRAZILIAN STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Esboço crítico da recente historiografia sobre independência do Brasil
(desde c.1980)

Jurandir Malerba
Working Paper Number
CBS-45-03

Centre for Brazilian Studies
University of Oxford
92 Woodstock Rd
Oxford OX2 7ND

ESBOÇO CRÍTICO DA RECENTE
HISTORIOGRAFIA
SOBRE INDEPENDÊNCIA DO BRASIL
(desde c.1980)

Jurandir Malerba
Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre For Brazilian Studies,
University of Oxford (January – July 2003) and Pesquisador Associado ao Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro

Working Paper Number
CBS-45-03

Abstract
The working-paper was presented at the opening session of a History
Workshop ‘New approaches to Brazilian independence’, held at the St. Antony’s
College and the Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford on 29th-30th
May 2003, and sponsored by the Centre for Brazilian Studies. After offering a brief, general overview of the main trends in the historiography of Brazilian independence during the last 180 years, the paper focuses on the most recent phase from c.1980 to the present. This historiography represents a significant effort at revision after a certain cooling of interest after the boom of historiographical output generated by the 150th anniversary of Brazilian independence in 1972. What questions have dominated the research of this most recent generation of historians? Into which lines of enquiry do they fit? From what new angles did they focus on political emancipation? What conclusions, however provisional, do they reach? What is effectively innovative in this recent production? The paper focuses in turn on the issues of “nation”, “unity”,
“periodization”, “the nature of Independence”, “Masonry”, “the people”, “the
‘sense’ of Independence”, with some final considerations on the ‘agents’ of independence. 1

Resumo
Este working-paper foi apresentado na sessão de abertura da Oficina de
História “Novas Abordagens da Independência do Brasil” realizada no St.
Antony’s