Memórias de outsiders na figuração da hanseníase: do isolamento compulsório às experiências de escolarização

Abstract

The thesis entitled “Memories of Outsiders in the figuration of leprosy: From compulsory isolation to schooling experiences” had as central objective to understand the figurations involving leprosy and resulting from the institutionalization of the policy of compulsory isolation in Amazonas (1931-1978), in everyday life and in the schooling process of people affected by Hansen's disease. The investigation used the qualitative approach, through the techniques of Oral History, Documentary Analysis and Observation, with the participation of thirty-two interlocutors. Norbert Elias supports the main analyzes of this thesis, becoming the central theoretical-methodological framework, dialoguing with other authors, such as Ludwick Fleck, Ecléa Bosi and Michel Foucault, in addition to researchers in the social history of the disease. The results show that the institutionalization of compulsory isolation in Amazonas happened at various times, in small lazaretos, in leprosariums and in a hospital - Colony, initially with the intention of guaranteeing a strong, modern and productive State. They reveal moments of administrative neglect by the State, social exclusion, prejudice and stigma, as well as stories of resilience and reinvention of experiences. It was found that the isolation brought reverberations in the lives of ex-inmates, however, the relationships between individuals and the dynamics of interdependence networks generated particular, unique and collective meanings. Through the procedural analysis, it was noticed that, at a transgenerational level, the impacts were smaller, due to the mechanisms adopted by the State and the incorporation of educational values and actions in the habitus, which, through the experiences of schooling and the actions of a structured interdependence network, provided changes and perspectives, presented in the children's narratives and in the process of becoming a teacher of former inmates who saw education as a means of overcoming and an encounter with the meaning of life. The fertility of an analysis of the ongoing and non-punctual process is considered, which allowed us to conclude that growing up within a stigmatized group is not decisive.