Insurgent writing: social distribution of writing in the seditious movements of the late colonial period
History of Written Culture; Social diffusion of writing in Brazil; Colonial insurrections.
Searching for clues that can bring us closer to a history of written culture in Brazil, this Doctoral Thesis, based on scenarios orchestrated in seditious atmospheres, aims to delimit, based on the method of counting signatures and the analysis of material evidence, the social distribution of writing in the main movements of insurrection in the history of Brazil in the late seventies, from the sedition of the Inconfidência Mineira (1789), in Minas Gerais, the Revolta dos Letrados (1794), in Rio de Janeiro and the Conspiração dos Alfaiates (1798), in Bahia. The so-called devassas of insurrection constitute an important source for the history of Brazil, since, in order to investigate the crime of lese-majesty relevant aspects regarding the sociological constitution of the context in which they are being implemented are registered. This qualifies them as privileged sources for the investigations intending to study the history of the social diffusion of writing, because in them there are signature records, identifying those who signed according to autograph, ideographical or non-alphabetical signatures, and those who did not sign. In addition, the apprehensions made by the investigative board allow us to evaluate panoramically signs of the circulation of writing in the middle of such conjunctures, since elements directly related to the practices of reading and writing of the involved in such movements constituted the main material evidences in the processes.