Biblioteca pública, memória e representações sociais: o depoimento de um grupo de usuários acerca da Mário de Andrade

Abstract

This article analyzes the roll of public libraries in the process of construction of collective memories that are relationally shared from a representational point of view. A 'meaning frame' is outlined by means of an analysis from a set of life testimonies and accounts which were collected and made available by the Oral Memory Project of Mário de Andrade Library. The project aims to dig in the comprehension about the institution’s history and to understand better the institution’s paths and detours in São Paulo’s cultural life. Generally, such statements allow that the deponents reflect on their formation as historical subjects and on the relationships that they established with the city where the library lies (activities, mobilization strategies, and practical-affective relationships). They also made possible that the deponents address issues which refer to the place occupied by Mário de Andrade Library –historical, symbolic and structural dimensions– in all this relational-formative process. By means of a procedural analysis of the testimonies, the social memory that was constructed from and around the library could be revealed through associations of events, situations and representations that appear frequently in the deponents’ discourses.