A representação da história local no Museu do Algodão de Campina Grande: lugares de memória e poder.

Abstract

This study investigates the role of the Cotton History and Technology Museum, located in Campina Grande, Paraíba, in preserving and constructing local historical memory. The city emerged in the early 20th century as an important center for cotton processing and experienced a period of significant economic prosperity, driven by cotton farming and railway expansion. With the decline of this economic activity, the city reinvented itself, but continues to preserve the memory of its past through spaces such as the Cotton Museum. We seek to analyze how the museum, located in the old railway station, organizes and exhibits its collection to tell the history of the city, highlighting the importance of cotton and the railway in local development. Our research is based on theories by authors such as Ramos (2008), Nora (1984) and Espinosa (2019), helping us to explore how collective memory is shaped into official history by local elites, which is exhibited in places of memory, such as museums, operating, among other functions, as an ideological instrument of power. The analysis of the exhibitions reveals an emphasis on the narrative of progress and modernization, highlighting the city's “great men” and the economic development that the city underwent during this period, while failing to encourage a critical perception of what is presented there and failing to present narratives of subjects other than members of the local elite, who are relegated to the role of extras in their reading of local history. We thus intend to contribute to the discussion on the function of museums as spaces of memory and historical education.