Dictature militaire et université

politiques, réactions et mémoires au Brésil (1964-1985)

Abstract

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil lives a period of dictatorial military government. Internal politics aim mostly to justify governmental actions and highlight the military forces as promoters of democracy and Christian ideals against corruption and communist invasion. A complex set of politics is put in place, including within the educational system. The university community reacts in different ways. Thirty years after the end of the Brazilian dictatorship, fourteen professors of the University of São Paulo were interviewed. Their memories of the facts show different feelings and emotions, at times contradictory. Five life pathways are drawn. The first one consists in remaining in the university to preserve research and teaching as an act of resistance. A second type of life pathway also consists in remaining in the university, yet at the same time offering clandestine resistance to the military ideology. This duplicity of action is the taken resort. A third type of life pathway refers to going into exile, either to different regions of the country, either abroad, as a life choice. A forth life pathway may be inferred by what some of the interviewees told: certain members of the university community used the ideological system of control to take personal advantages. And finally, the fifth life pathway consists in denying the social changes introduced by the new political system, life going on as if nothing had changed. Once the dictatorship began to fall, intellectual discussions are retaken. Some of the aforementioned life pathways converge toward political action. A university memory is built through the importance given to acts of bravery in spite of acts of military repression.