Atenas em ruínas, sertão e persistência: novas e velhas representações de Assú na escrita de Celso Dantas da Silveira entre as décadas de 1980 a 1990

Abstract

This research has a purpose to problematize the representations of Assú/RN from the intellectual production of the journalist Celso Dantas da Silveira (1929-2005). We propose to analyze how he sought to appropriate the representations to safeguard them and then build as heir to sertão of poetry. We emphasize that we do not seek to investigate how representations of Assú were constructed, given that Celso da Silveira's writing has a character of preservation. So, we seek to research how Celso da Silveira appropriated representations from Terra dos Poetas, Terra dos Verdes Carnaubais and Atenas Norte-Rio-Grandense, putting into circulation new and old representations about the city and about himself, the last one material, emerges as he tries to make the city the basis that legitimizes his intellectual actions. Our sources were books written by Celso da Silveira, and the analysis was based on Roger Chartier's Conceptual Scheme (2002), representation, appropriation, practice and circulation. To answer our questions, we dialogue with the Sertões History, Cultural History, and Intellectual History.