A CULTURA DA INFÂNCIA PELAS LENTES DA REPRESENTAÇÃO CINEMATOGRÁFICA

Abstract

The present essay, inscribed in the Education, Society and Culture research line, has as object of study the culture of childhood represented in some of the Brazilian filmmaking. Therefore, its seeks to elucidate the problem of research starting from the following central question: Taking some Brazilian productions, what aspects of the culture of childhood were represented in them? In general, the objective is to understand the aspects represented by the film industry like the culture of the childhood and identify how these elements have been used in films. The first point to be emphasized is the understanding of the object of study in its conceptual terms, highlighted primarily by authors like Sarmento and Corsaro, based on four structural axes of the cultures of childhood (interactivity, playfulness, the fantasy of reality and reiteration), which this study aims to elucidate, together with other elements that mark the lives of children and the ways they relate to contemporary society. The second point refers to the way the cinematographic representation in Brazil apprehends this culture. Despite the numerous possibilities of reading a movie, movies will be taken here as the field of apprehension of representations of the culture of childhood from a critical perspective, that is, of understanding them as ways of orchestration of reality. Academic studies, such as thesis and dissertations, registered in the thesis database of Capes in the past 10 years (2002-2012) have been analyzed so we could have a considerable idea at what had been produced in Brazil on the subject. With this survey, we have decided to research films produced in Brazil that addressed somehow the universe of children and their childhood. According to pre-established criteria, we have encountered four movies that made up the universe of this research: The Story of Me (O Contador de Histórias), The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (O Ano em que Meus Pais Sairam de Férias), In the Middle of the Street (No Meio da Rua) and Mutum (Mutum). So as to achieve the objectives defined in this work, we proceeded to the analysis of the content in the light of theoretical matrix of historical and dialectical materialism, which is based on the discussions of human production and its constituent links in history, movement, class contradictions and human action/activity. In general terms, the chapters of the dissertation go about topics that, articulated and situated in the historical, social and cultural human context, give a foundation to the proposed theme. The themes of the discussions of the chapters are: Human Culture and Culture of Childhood, Processes of Social Interaction of Children, Social Relations and Processes of Reiteration, and Playfulness and Fantasy of Reality.