<b>A gramscian approach to the jesuits’ practice as intellectuals in colonial Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on the action of the Jesuit intellectual, from the perspective of Manuel da Nobrega, under the concept of ‘intellectuals’ by Antonio Gramsci. It starts from the assumption that Jesuit priests, as organic intellectuals, were crucial to the achievement of the Portuguese colonial hegemony. To achieve the proposed goal, the following sources were used: the Antonio Gramsci’s Prison notebooks to discuss the concept of intellectuals and their organic role in hegemonic groups; and Brazil's Letters by Manuel da Nobrega, who expressed the commitment of the Jesuit intellectual educator to the educational policy of the Portuguese Crown in Brazil. The texts were interpreted critically and focused on understanding the role that Jesuits exercised in the formation of boards at service of hegemony maintenance. Catechesis and indigenous formation, as well as the boards among the settler’s children, have relatively met the interests of formation of key sectors of colonial hegemony. In schools, settler’s children composed the dominant sectors of colonial society, since they were graduated as intellectuals who would occupy functions of specialized boards of the Company and, also, in the administration in favor of the interests of the Crown to maintain the Portuguese culture.