Mocidade estudantil e o fausto selvagem: ideologia, contradição e progresso na Belle Époque (Amazonas, 1900-1920)

Abstract

The research questions the history of Amazonian student youth during the Belle Époque (1900-1920), analyzing their social, cultural and religious practices, as well as their involvement in the economic, political and cultural transformations of Amazonas. The central theme is the relationship between student youth and the ideology of the rubber boom, highlighting how the values of progress, order and civilization shaped their identities and practices. The problem investigated is to understand how young people faced the contradictions of capitalist modernity and social inequalities, in addition to analyzing the role of religious festivities in the formation of social and cultural identities. The objectives include analyzing the practices of student youth, investigating their role in organizing religious festivities, understanding the contradictions between modernity and tradition, and examining the conditions of the Amazonian educational system. The research uses sources such as student newspapers, government reports, magazines, student notebooks, minutes of associations, period films and literary novels. The theoretical analysis combines Lacanian psychoanalysis, Marxism, structural anthropology, and decolonial and postcolonial theories, with authors such as Lacan, Foucault, and Zizek. The methodology involves historical and critical analysis, exploring the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of the belle époque in Amazonas. The conclusions highlight that student youth were challenged by the ideology of pomp, facing tensions between tradition and modernity, progress and inequality. Religious festivities functioned as spaces for social and cultural interaction, while the educational system reproduced the contradictions of society. The research aims to contribute to historiography by addressing education, literature, and power relations in the construction of regional identity, in addition to offering a critical perspective on colonization, exploitation, and social inequalities in the Amazon.