Além do olhar: Dorina Nowill e a educação para cegos no Brasil

Abstract

This research is inserts in the field of History of Education, articulating the domains of History of Intellectuals and Sensibilities, in order to analyze the trajectory of Dorina de Gouvêa Nowill. We aim to identify the aspects that accredited her as an intellectual for inclusion, through the study and analysis of her experiences, actions and writing. We understand Nowill as a creator and cultural mediator intellectual, according to the conceptions of Jean-François Sirinelli (1998; 2003). For that, we take as a basis their itineraries, generational aspects and sociability networks. In a sensitive perspective of understanding history, we dialogue with Sandra Pesavento (2019) and with the concept of “Abnormal” by Foucault (2001), understanding Dorina Nowill from the categories monster, masturbator and incorrigible. We also discuss aspects related to the Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind (FDNC), an institution created by the intellectual, based on what was exposed by Justino Magalhães (2004); and finally, we approach the tripod exposed by Michel de Certeau (1992) in “The Writing of History”, composed by the place of speech, practice and writing. The documental body of this research consists of photographs, letters, notes, minutes, reports, statutes and books written by Nowill. The sources are operationalized from the historiographical method of heuristics and hermeneutics and discourse analysis, from the perspective of Foucault (1996). The work developed here led us to meet a multifaceted intellectual who was legitimized over the years through her performance, becoming a symbol of inclusion in Brazil and in the world.