Difusão de arquivos pessoais da cidade de João Pessoa: democratizando a memória

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the landscape of personal archives, seeking to analyze them conceptually and examining the local context of the city of João Pessoa (PB). These archives are full of potential and can be understood as promoters of individual and collective memories, culture, and as research sources for various areas of knowledge. However, identifying, locating, and accessing these personal archives is sometimes a delicate task, hampered by a lack of knowledge about their existence. Currently, the capital of Paraíba has approximately 55 personal archives, previously mapped by the PIBIC/UFPB/CNPq project "Personal Archives of the City of João Pessoa - PB: Collections, Institutions and Memories" (2023). These collections belong to relevant figures in politics, education, culture, and the intellectual sphere, revealing information about their owners and, above all, about their social networks, highlighting collective memories and aspects of the history of society itself. In this context, the following concern arises: how to democratize the memories that permeate the personal archives located in the city of João Pessoa (PB)? In order to answer this question, the general objective is to disseminate the personal archives of this city, promoting the democratization of memory, and the specific objectives of this project are to this end, the research is based on the concept of archival dissemination as a mechanism for the democratization of memory. This is a relevant study both for the academic and scientific community, by enabling broader access to potential research sources, and for society in general, by making the collections more visible and accessible, expanding the promotion of memory and culture. Thus, the present theme emerges from the discussions of the Study and Research Group on Archives: Memory, Responsibility and Social Justice (GEPAMER/UFPB), anchored in the desire to break down the existing barrier between personal archives and society. Given the identified scenario, a focus was chosen for the research corpus, focusing on the collections existing on the central campus of UFPB. Methodologically, the research is characterized as applied; it has a descriptive and exploratory nature regarding its objectives; and, in terms of procedures, it includes a bibliographic phase, followed by a documentary analysis and field research. As data collection instruments, the field diary is used, configuring a quantitative-qualitative research. Partial results point to the predominance of collections of male figures in relation to female ones, in addition to changes in the storage location of some of them. The creation of the Observatory of Personal Archives of the city of João Pessoa is also highlighted, as a technical-scientific product aimed at the dissemination and location of these collections, facilitating access for researchers, as well as serving as an open channel for the inclusion of new collections.