Mário de Andrade’s ‘Formation Letters’ (1924-1945) and its Educational Strenght

Abstract

This paper concerns the formation letters exchanged between Mário de Andrade and a group of young writers during more than two decades, in which he was recognized as a master for the younger ones. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s analysis about Greco-roman’s care of the self and its extension in the educational field – psicagogy –, we support the hypothesis that claims that, through the mentioned correspondence, some practices of formation were stablished away from the pedagogical dealing strictosensu. That redirects education towards a new arrangement, marked by an ethical addressing to writing practices, which would lead them to undertake the role of a permanent ethical link between the subject who writes and his own truth, both in permanent elaboration.