Saberes psicológicos no Compêndio Narrativo do Peregrino da América (1728), de Nuno Marques Pereira

Abstract

It is possible to define conceptions about human kind and psychological knowledge, elaborated by social and cultural context at colonial age in Brazil history. The history of Psychological Knowledge in Brazil has its legacy dated from colonial era. Nowadays, it is possible to analyze that knowledge in order to understand the evolution of the concepts of human being and knowledge understanding from then on. In the XVIII century, among baroque writers, Nuno Marques Pereira has a special role. Regarded as a founder of Brazilian fictional prose, his opera prima Compêndio Narrativo do Peregrino da América (1728) tells, in first person, a dialog between a Pilgrim, going from Bahia to Minas Gerais, and an Ancient man. The dialog retells the metaphor of human life as peregrination. Although there wasn't a Psychological Science at his time, Nuno Marques Pereira works allows to dive into psychic dynamics of baroque man. The peregrination denotes a man in movement, the dynamics and fugacity of life in an existence interweave in the signification of the relation with the spiritual and divine. This thesis focuses on the psychological knowledge in Nuno's work through the topic pilgrimage, as well as the knowledge referent to concept and practice elaboration about the psychological dimension of human experience. To fulfill this task, Nuno's works was analyzed from the historiographical viewpoint and from Pécora's proposal presented in this book Teatro do Sacramento, trying to search the systematic occurrence of selected topics through base formulations and its articulations on discursive significations. As a result, it was possible to highlight topics related to the conception of human person proposed in Nuno's work, as well as topics tackling the psychic process dynamics, moods, psychological functions, body and spiritual health, emotions and free will. This way, the analysis of Nuno's work denoted that the knowledge formulated at the human psychic scope are rooted in an Aristotelian-Thomist ground, where man is integrally recognized, embodying somatic, soul-like and spiritual dimensions.