Improbable or impossible memories? Life remains in communicational dialogues

ABSTRACT

In the theoretical articulations between memory, communication, and history, this article tries to think about the links between communication and memory, by an exercise of recovering Brazilian slaves’ lives from the XIX century. The inscription of these lives, which appear as lists in criminal files, shows communication as a possibility of producing other meanings for the past. From a methodological point of view, with documental analysis, it interprets prison files from the Casa de Detention in Rio de Janeiro, seeking to identify elements to also interpret a “could have been” from the past. Based on the information from the lists, we show lives inscribed in memorable acts, relating memory, communication, and history.

KEYWORDS:
Memory; Communication; History; Prisoners; Slaves; XIX Century