Passado em papel-jornal

Pombal, “A Folha Nova” e “A Palavra” – impressões em disputa no centenário do marquês (Porto, 1882)

Abstract

A hundred years after the death of the Marquis of Pombal, people in Portugal and in Brazil organized festivities in his honor, mobilizing memories of his reforms as a historical justification for different projects and conflicts. The centenary festivities, which resulted in many words put on print, were a sort of an update on the polemics that the Marquis' past raised. To the author, this event is an opportunity to reflect on the way some voices from the past were at the time mobilized to echo specific views both on history and on politics. As an attempt to access part of the debate that occurred, the author selected two important newspapers printed on the city of Oporto. The aim is to understand the main issues on dispute during the festivities and to reflect on how historiographical discourses have been structured and validated on the debates, articulating different voices of the selected past, of the present (at the time) and even of idealized futures.