Education of the Body

This work looks at the concept of the body in the works of Friar Pedro Sinzig who belonged to the Order of Franciscan Minors (OFM): Reminiscencias d'um Frade (1917) and Através dos Romances (1915). The time frame was the period between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and is justified by the fact that this was a period in which the world as well as local realities such as Brazil were experiencing constant social political economic and cultural transformations anchored in the growing and simultaneous process of industrialisation in addition to population growth and urbanisation. In this context education emerged and consolidated itself as one of the most burning issues on the national scene for the urban literate elite. Our hypothesis is that Friar Pedro Sinzig in writing the works favoured in this research sought to serve the interests of the Catholic Church as well as the newly inaugurated Brazilian republic thus aiming for a given education of the body which could conform to the standards required for coexistence in the urban space through the formation of a new individual under a new rationality.