A memória da trajetória familiar reconstruída a partir de fotografias de trabalhadores na construção simbólica da cidade de Maringá e de seus sujeitos

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how photographs from the 1950s belonging to a family collection donated to the municipal historical heritage site, given their importance in the city's development, contribute to the construction of memory and identity, articulating the personal trajectory and collective memory of the city of Maringá, Paraná. The corpus consists of historical images donated by pioneers to the Historical Heritage Department, in which family experience intertwines with work and urban construction. The premise is that these photographs, at once intimate and public, reveal a dual sense of belonging: they bear witness to the subjects' affective memories and, simultaneously, participate in the city's symbolic narrative. The central objective is to understand how these images operate as memory devices, revealing both consensus on what it means to be a pioneer and dissenting fissures that open space for new interpretations of identity, work, and community. The methodology used involves qualitative analysis of a visual and narrative nature, organized into categories of labor and evidentiary images, considering their modes of enunciation. The results point to the relevance of photographs of workers, taken here as photographs from family collections donated to a municipal historical heritage collection, in the production of a memory that is both private and collective, highlighting the role of images in the constitution of identities and in the symbolic construction of the city.