Sensitive education: affection and sentimentalism in Brazilian school textbooks (1889-1945)

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of "sensitive education" in Brazilian textbooks authored by women between 1889 and 1945. By investigating works by authors such as Julia Lopes de Almeida and Maria Guilhermina Loureiro de Andrade, the study demonstrates how affection and sentimentalism were used as gender normalization devices to foster docility in children. The theoretical framework is based on the concepts of Social Imaginary and Representations to understand the textbook as an object that prescribed specific emotional destinies, especially for girls. The qualitative methodology identifies thematic axes such as "spiritual motherhood," the use of diminutive forms, and the exaltation of sacrifice as fundamental feminine virtues. The results reveal that didactic sentimentalism was not merely a style but a political tool to convert state norms into private feelings, ensuring obedience to the republican order through domestic warmth. The study concludes that this pedagogy "manufactured" domesticity as a woman's natural destiny, using a pedagogy of guilt and an aesthetic of tenderness to internalize surveillance and maintain patriarchal and hygienist structures under a veneer of sweetness.