Apelles Porto Alegre (1850-1917): a trajetória de um intelectual mediador

Abstract

This doctorate thesis has as its goal to investigate the life and role of intellectual mediator performed by teacher Apelles Porto Alegre. In order to do so, it wants to answer the following researching question: How was done the life and work of teacher Apelles Porto Alegre and what is his role as an intellectual mediator? Apelles was a teacher, school principal and also from Instrução Pública, journalist and writer. He was involved with education, culture and politics from Rio Grande do Sul, since the second half of XIX century to the beginning of XX century. Apelles was surrounded by a social network made of his brothers Apolinário, Achylles and Lucio Porto Alegre, as well as a group of people that united to benefit the society, with the creation of cultural institutions, schools and republican clubs. The period in time of this research is from1850 to 1917, Apelle's lifetime. To the theoretical construction regarding this research, it was sought to reflect upon files, life path, life history and biography. In addition it was worked to understand the concept about intellectual mediator and studies about the press. The methodology applied is micro-history. The sources studied in this work include the personal files from teacher Apelles Porto Alegre and his relatives, such as notes, bulletins, business cards, mail, receipts, texts and a poem. Besides those sources, it was used some samples from the newspaper A Imprensa (The Press), which was his own, and he was also editor and writer. In Revista do Parthenon Literário (Literature Parthenon Magazine), many texts made by him were published. The set of sources allowed to understand Apelles during his lifetime acting as a teacher, writer, editor, orator and political actor in order to organize the republican movement, giving him opportunity to make him as an intellectual mediator. Apelles, as an intellectual mediator, was able to pass his knowledge trough his lectures as an orator, or by his texts published in newspaper and magazines, or even in classroom, in many schools in which he taught, or even in the meetings of the republic movement. Even with some tensions, Apelles kept working in the society and was a historical actor in the transmission of knowledge receiving due to it the acknowledgement of his students.