João Batista Cascudo Rodrigues and UERN

intellectuals, self-writing and institutional memory

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the book Interiorização da Universidade, written by João Batista Cascudo Rodrigues and that gathers his speeches while he was rector of the Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, located in the city of Mossoró / RN, between the years 1968 to 1973. Our hypothesis is that, when publishing his speeches, Cascudo Rodrigues, an important intellectual from the western region of Rio Grande do Norte, built a narrative both for himself and for the institution, which today uses this text to narrate its history. We also sought to relate the speeches to the dynamics of local power, identifying the strategies for regional development carried out by politicians and intellectuals at the time. In order to analyze the edition - in its material aspects and in the content of his speeches - we used as reference the discussions about intellectuals, as proposed by Sirinelli and of self-writing, as discussed by Angela de Castro Gomes.