A atuação dos historiadores na Comissão Nacional da Verdade: limites, contribuições e disputas pela representação do passado recente

Abstract

This research intends to investigate the participation of historians in the activities carried out by the National Truth Commission - CNV between 2012 and 2014. This commission was approved by the Federal Government in November 2011 with the objective of investigating human rights violations practiced by the Brazilian State among 1946 and 1988. The paper intends to initially understand the spaces occupied by historians at CNV, forms of entry and activities developed. In addition, it is intended to apprehend who are the historians who acted in the National Truth Commission and what they share in common and for that, a professional profile of these researchers will be presented. Finally, considering the CNV as a space for disputes over representations of the past and for meanings of history, the research aims to understand the places attributed to history, historians and historiography in this commission, how these places can be understood by disputes over representation of the past and by meanings of history, what are these disputes and what are the clashes and approaches between different historiographical perspectives. This research aims to contribute to reflections on the historian's public performance in public spaces, including truth commissions. Through the proposed research, it was concluded that history, historiography and historians occupied a reduced space in internal decisions and in the narrative produced by the report of the National Truth Commission, despite the relevant roles played by these professionals in research and advice from this commission. These conclusions come from the factual, linear and descriptive narrative adopted by the first volume of the report, which consequently gave little space for dialogues with academic interpretations of the dictatorship and used traditional meanings of history, linked to historicism and the Law. However, there were interactions with historiography and other interpretations of the recent past in the second volume of the final report, which presented investigations on social segments and themes not covered by the narrative of the first volume. These influences and the participation of historians in the CNV also contributed to understand that the work of the historian in this space provided elements for the understanding of the recent past and avoided the complete invisibility of certain social segments and determined themes.