Disoriented time and social knowledge : the historical essay in Brazil, c. 1870–1940

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationships between the writing of history and the experience of time in Brazil, c. 1870–1940. The focus of the analysis is the historical essay, arguing that this kind of essay was a privileged discursive modality for dealing with the problems of temporal order that featured that historical moment, characterized by a deep questioning about the paths taken by the Brazilian republic, by a distortion of the ideal of progress that defined, since the nineteenth century, the features of the modern concept of history, and, finally, by a desire to renew interpretations focused on the development of the nation.