Festejos e controle social: os bailes carnavalescos no Teatro de Santa Isabel (Recife, 1850 - 1855)

Abstract

This work arises with the purpose of analyzing the practices of nineteenth-century carnival manifestations that took place in the city of Recife, specifically within the Teatro de Santa Isabel, between the years 1850 - 1855, and how the propagation of these festivities makes it possible to understand the performance of some mechanisms of social control of the society of the time. The choice of time frame is justified by the inauguration of Teatro Santa Isabel – as a symbol of civilization for Recife society at the time, aiming to analyze the propagation of carnival balls promoted within this private space, to the detriment of Carnival manifestations. Based on the analysis of cultural manifestations, we can understand the systematization of the controlling power of the ruling class in Recife in the 19th century, as well as analyze how the instruments of communication play an important role in the construction of a civilizing ideal, which tend to marginalize the manifestations of most popular stratum of the city of Recife in the 19th century (1850 - 1855). It is in this scenario of disputes for spaces of sociability in the capital of Pernambuco, that we will investigate the attempt to build a national identity, which seeks to break with some cultural manifestations that do not meet the civilizing progress that fosters the ideals of a slave-owning elite.