Introduction

In the last decades, there has been an accumulation of researches in the educational field aiming to problematize the notions of childhood (^{Kuhlmann Jr, 1998}; ^{Sarmento & Gouvêa, 2008}) and youth (^{Peralva, 1997}; ^{Oliveira, 1999}, ²⁰⁰⁴; ^{Tomio & Facci, 2009}; ^{Pinto, 2015}), which was understood as social and historic production. Little has been studied about adulthood and the old age¹⁰, even though, as can be seen in the tendencies of Brazilian population pyramid, Brazil is going through an accelerated period of demographic aging, with the proportional increase of adults and elders, with the last as the fastest growing group (^{Borges, Campos, & Castro e Silva, 2015}).

Faced by this demographic configuration of Brazilian society, several questions impose themselves in the area of Education, demanding studies that focus on elders as research subjects/objects, to better understand how they see and reinvent themselves as subjects and to subsidize pedagogical practices to and with them¹¹. The analysis of autobiographies written by them, in contemporary times, can be, in this context, fruitful to problematize several of these elements.

^{Bruner and Weisser (1995}) understand autobiographic writing as a resource that answers a possible need of the individual to ‘talk about him/herself’. To the authors, writing about your own life allows, among other aspects, a ‘self-location’ that would be the result of “[…] a navigation that fixates the position in a more virtual than real sense” (^{Bruner e Weisser, 1995}, p. 145). In other words, to these authors, through autobiography, those the authors place themselves in the symbolic world of culture. Thus, autobiographical writing allows the author to give sense to his/her life experiences through the cultural tools s/he has when creating the narrative. In this process, writing about yourself can be understood as an educational process, as it makes possible a self-knowledge and the knowledge of the world in the attempt to approximate and distance the ‘I’ that the author creates when thinking about his/her own experiences. It is a way of thinking this type of writing as a learning instrument, considering such activity as a reflection tool on the experiences and practices of the writers. That is, the production and the reporting of one’s own experiences through writing allows an enlargement of self-knowledge, of who narrates it (^{Hernández, 2010}; ^{Kroeff, 2012}; ^{Passeggi, Vicentini, & Souza, 2013}).

The analysis of autobiographies written by elderly authors allows us to evaluate more intensely the effects of the present on memories in the process of self-invention, as it is through the present that the past is (re)constructed. It is worth mentioning that the term ‘self-invention’ does not intend to diminish the validity of this type of narrative, or, as expressed by ^{Bruner and Weisser (1995}), to judge it as a ‘biased self-report’. The use of the expression seems to be the most adequate to refer to the movement of organization and reflection on the facts and experiences lived by the author(s) during writing. After all, it is understandable that, when narrating their lives, the authors try to establish a certain order and coherence to the facts narrated, to give meaning, through the narrative, to their existence (^{Bourdieu, 1986}).

Aiming to contribute to the understanding of self-invention in the writings of elderly subjects, in contemporary times, this text analyses eight autobiographies: five written by men and three by women, all born in the state of Minas Gerais, in the first half of the 20^th century, as will be detailed. Besides the biographies, as complementary sources, we used Census data from Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE- Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics] from 1920 (^{IBGE, 1928}) and 1950 (^{IBGE, 1959}).

We opted for autobiographies published from the 2000s because it is a moment in which there is a clear consolidation of a new concept of aging in Brazil, which has significantly intensified from the 1960s and 70s, within a movement of reconfiguration of this life phase that, generally, was taken as a time of losses. Among those changes, we have the change, in Brazilian Portuguese, of the terms ‘old’ (velho) and ‘ old age’ (velhice) to ‘ third age’ (Terceira idade) that, as pointed out by ^{Marques (2004}, p. 66) “[...] adds news visibilities and positiveness”.

Within this new concept on aging, from the 1990s there was a boom in biographic and autobiographic publication, a phenomenon still followed with little interest by part of researchers, especially those from the literature field (^{Gomes, 2004}). More recently, in history of education, there has been an increasing interest in the analysis of self-writing as a cultural practice, and the use of these sources to reflect on the school and learning practices and experiences that are not commonly registered in other documents (^{Lopes, 2004}; ^{Melo, 2008}; ^{Manke, 2012}; ^{Galvão, Neiva, & Jinzenji, 2018}).

In this article, we analyze a printed document corpus, whose production had different motivations and addresses, not always clear or declared. Following ^{Lejeune’s (2014}) assumptions, considering the different manifestations of the autobiographical genre and the impossibility to delimit the works in one or another specific definition, in this work, we used texts written mostly in prose (even though other genres are used to compose the works) in which the authors talk about themselves, narrate episodes in their lives - either lived by themselves or recovered by reports of people in their lives.

We discuss how elderly authors, common people, invent themselves through autobiographical writing, identifying, in the first moment, the profile of these subjects in the schooling process and Brazilian publishing context. After, we problematize how their gender belonging strongly outlines the references chosen by them in their process of self-invention. Finally, we discuss how the meanings of aging are also related to the construction of gender identities.

The autobiographers: their school trajectories and the Brazilian publishing context

The subjects analyzed in the research wrote their autobiographies when they were 65 years old or more and their works were published in the 2000s. They were born in the countryside of the state (Minas Gerais) and moved to the capital (Belo Horizonte) in some point of their trajectories; in most cases, they migrated in search of better living conditions, through the continuation of studies and/or looking for better jobs¹². These data can be seen on Table 1.

Brazilian editorial market, that in the beginning of the 20^th century was concentrated in few streets in the center of the city of Rio de Janeiro, considerably increased its product diversity, reaching, in the beginning of the 21^st century, more than 500 commercially active publishing houses (^{El Far, 2006}). Therefore, there are, mainly in the capitals, a number of medium and small-sized publishing companies focused on the publication of a variety of works and texts, expanding the editorial catalog beyond the famous works, of renowned authors, who already had a space in this market. As can be seen on table 1, this is the case of the publishing houses which published the analyzed works that, with the reduction of the costs to print and the enlargement and diversification of the reading public, opened their doors to common subjects who whished to write their memoirs and autobiographies. They are: Líthera Maciel, Sografe, Redação, Mazza Edições, Gil Braz, and Imprensa oficial de Minas Gerais, all still active in Belo Horizonte¹³. Together with this opening of Brazilian editorial market, other elements helped to build the profile of these autobiographers: their school trajectory and the familiarity with the written words.

Among the eight authors, as can be observed on table 1, three had primary education (four years of schooling), two had high school (Normal school- which train students to become teachers), and three had graduated in higher education. According to the Census of IBGE (1928), in 1920 in Brazil, only one quarter of the population knew how to read and write. This index decreases when we analyze the state of Minas Gerais, in which this group represented a little more than 20% of the population. The discrepancy between these indexes is even higher when comparing the capital, in which the population which could read and write represented around 60%, with other cities in the State: 11% of the population in Itamarandiba (Vicente Guabiroba’s birthplace) and 21% in Bom Despacho (Maria da Conceição Teles’s birthplace) could read and write.

Even though in 1950 it was already possible to see a significant increase in the number of people over the age of 5 years old able to read and write in the capitals and other cities, this number was still discrepant when comparing urban and rural areas. In the latter, illiteracy represented more than 50% of the population (IBGE, 1959).

Another important fact that should be observed is that two of the three female authors in the researched group are from regions in which, in both rural and urban areas, the difference between men and women who could read and write, in the 1950s, although existing, were not so discrepant. In the urban population of Pirapora, for example, Therezinha Gonçalves’s birthplace, 39.82% of men and 34.96% of women knew how to read and write; in Santa Maria de Itabira, Maria Horta’s birthplace, 34% of men and 28% of women knew how to read and write ¹⁴. In the researched places, this difference was sensibly higher only in Boa Esperança (72 to 44%) (^{IBGE, 1959}).

Summing up, we can say that these are subjects with atypical trajectories in the development of their relations with reading and writing, if considered as a whole and in comparison with the rest of the population in these places and periods. They are part of a population minority that, having access to primary education, some in the rural areas of the cities in which they have spent this life period (for instance, Vicente de Souza, born in Água Comprida, rural area of Boa Esperança and Abram Ribeiro, born in Garapa, close to Amparo do Serra), climbed to better life conditions through migration; the trajectory of some was marked by school longevity and of other, by autodidacticism (cases of Maria Horta Fernandes, Therezinha Gonçalves, and Abram Ribeiro)¹⁵, as can be seen on table 1.

Besides this, these are subjects to whom writing about themselves is part of wider writing practices developed throughout their lives, for professional reasons or by personal affinities and interests, even though none of them were professional writers. The autobiographies indicate that the authors developed professional activities that demanded a daily contact with writing and reading, for example Maria da Conceição Teles, who was a primary teacher, Allyrio Coelho, a school principal and a political advisor in the Legislative Chamber, Olney Jardim, who graduated in Odontology, Vicente Guabiroba and Vicente de Souza, who both graduated in Law and the later became a court judge in Belo Horizonte. Besides this familiarity with writing, five of the authors inserted, in the autobiography, some texts wrote by themselves in other contexts, suggesting a familiarity with writing beyond their professional work.

To give an example, ^{Teles (2003}) wrote and published his autobiography - Minha vida, meu tesouro!- when he was 80 years old; she studied in Normal School and and worked as a teacher for a short time in the 1930s. She had 15 children, with Emídio Teles de Carvalho and, aiming to give better study conditions to her children, moved to Belo Horizonte in 1970. In the capital, the author started to work as a seamstress and embroiderer. She wrote the book Histórias da vovó: contos populares passados de pais para filhos (Stories from grandma: popular stories passed from parents to children), published in 2001 (^{Teles, 2001}) by the publishing company Leitura. She wrote her autobiography two years after this previous publication, by the publishing house Redação. She included in the autobiography two of her poems: Obrigada, Senhor (Thank you, Lord) and Nada tenho (I have nothing) (^{Teles, 2003}).

Allyrio Nunes Coelho was born in 1921, in Guanhães. In 1938, she graduated in Normal School. He married Tonha, with whom he had 4 children. He worked in many activities during his life: caandeiro (who guides the ox cart), cowboy, bread seller, engineer helper, municipal agent of statistics, a sailor clerk, teacher, secretary at the city hall of Buritizeiro, principal and one of the founders of Ginásio Pirapora, and chief advisor at the Legislative Chamber. He wrote and published his autobiography when he was 80 years old, in 2001, by Mazza Edições. In the end of this autobiography (^{Coelho, 2001}), he adds two of his chronicles: ‘Lenços molhados’ (Wet handkerchiefs) and ‘O diálogo do amor e da morte’ (The dialogue between love and death) that, having no connection with the autobiographical text, were probably written independently.

As a last example, we have Maria Cabral Horta Fernandes. She finished her primary education, and at 14 years old started to work in a fabric factory in Itabira. Married with Ilson Fernandes de Araújo, she had 11 children. Around 1928, with her arrival in the capital of Minas Gerais, she started to work in a sewing studio and, later, opened, together with her husband, a store to repair clothes and a laundry. With her husband’s death, in 1978, when she was 68 years old, she started to frequent SESC¹⁶, where she says she discovered herself an actress, working on the theater and on many television advertisements. When she was 90 years old Maria Cabral Horta wrote her autobiography entitled Outono Dourado em prosa e verso, published by Líthera Maciel, in 2000. Besides mentioning writing some theater plays, she included in the autobiography 26 of her poems with various themes, some of them: ‘Minha infância’ (My childhood), ‘Ipê florido (Flowered Ipê)’, ‘Buscando a felicidade’ (Searching happiness), ‘Cidade no interior’ (Countryside city), ‘Agradecimento a meu pai’ (Thanking my father).

We can see that even when other texts were incorporated to the autobiography, these writings were not always produced to compose the work, but written in previous moments of the authors’ trajectories. And even though these texts act as a complement of the autobiographic narratives, not all of them have an explicit relation with the content of the works. Finally, besides the familiarity and ability to write, the acknowledgement of family members and close friends are elements that have possibly influenced the process of producing a self-invention through an autobiography in their old age.

Gender in the belongings identity chosen for self-invention

According to ^{Galvão et al. (2018}), in the autobiographical writing, each author tends to choose an identity belonging to which s/he is strongly engaged in the moment of writing, to give sense and coherence to her/his life. Such choice is not announced or deliberate and involves specific circumstances in the present that become an axis to read the past. Thus, we can consider that, in other different moments of life, different re-reading can be done of one’s one past. In the analysis of the eight chosen works in this research, five belongings were highlighted: religious, family, socioeconomic, professional, and regional.

Gender relations and the meaning of aging

The belonging identity chosen for self-reinvention are equally translated in the perspective the authors have on the process of aging. To the women analyzed in this paper, to be an old woman is a type of continuity (or re-signification) of the life they had (or invented) of dedication to the domestic space¹⁹. ^{Gonçalves (2003}) dedicates two chapters of her autobiography to the theme of aging: ‘Como vejo meus setenta anos’ (How I see my 70 years) and ‘Nova experiência’ (New experience). The author affirms that she had found in religiousness and self-knowledge a way to positively see this phase of life, giving a personal merit to her position. Thus, for the author, it is through the will of each individual that feelings as ‘lack of affection’, ‘dependence’, and ‘ loneliness’ can and should be substituted by sensations of ‘accomplishment’ and ‘freedom’ in the old age.

Maria Horta writes about what happened after she became a widow, at 68 years old: “[…] little by little, [I started] to think more clearly in my life, what I still could accomplish. Little by little, I started to feel light, as if I had wings and could fly. I didn’t want to stop living, I wished to be independent, I aspired new accomplishments, that would make me fell a renewed, useful, intelligent, and happy person” (^{Fernandes, 2000}, p. 115). She wrote the chapter ‘Nasceu Maria Horta’ (Maria Horta was born) dedicated to his involvement with the theater, after her 70 years old. To legitimize her trajectory, she narrates interviews she gave and TV ads she worked in and, when writing her autobiography at the age of 90, she felt updated and with good health. Similarly, Maria da Conceição Teles, whose children own a big chain of bookstores and, therefore, had a stable financial condition, when reached her old age, went to the Work Ministry to inform herself about retirement, indicating a concern with her independence, as something important to be cultivated.

According to ^{Debert (2004}), when compared to men, many women have a more ‘positive’ relation towards aging, seeing this phase of life as more gratifying than the others, as they have no more obligations with the households responsibilities and are free to experience more pleasant activities, each time more available in a context of social and cultural changes in this phase of life, besides an increasing tolerance towards women nowadays.

On its turn, to the men analyzed in this research, old age represents a rupture, as they start to have limits to occupy the public space and have to deal with several restrictions, often been restricted to the private spaces, leading to frustration and unhappiness. Aging is associated to loss and nostalgic memories of friends. The absence of dreams and realizations make them frequently evoke the past, when they were supposedly happier. According to Abram Ribeiro, “Now, older, I remember what has passed as the good times, in which we were happy and didn’t know” (Ribeiro, 2002, p.103). Allyrio Coelho, to whom work was central in his self-invention, laments the forced retirement, saying he felt he still had much to contribute. Not working is, for him, to experience a meaningless life of idleness:

I worked twenty-five years in the Legislative Chamber. I retired when I was 70 years old and forty years in the public service. Retirement: nostalgia, depression, pain, illness, suffering. Laid down, the sleep does not come, the dawn does not come. Loneliness, sadness, a desire to cry come. I cried. Stuck at home, unable to go at the street alone, I craved for company. I will leave this situation and will walk as before. The beaten challenges inspire (^{Coelho, 2001}, p. 47).

According to ^{Beauvoir (1976}), women’s conditions have traditionally placed them in a subaltern place in relation to men, so aging does not represent such a great rupture when compared to men. The male condition is modified with time, and retirement is an important event that can be experienced with great suffering.

In the analyzed autobiographies, women invent themselves as adapted and free people, willing to keep improving and going through new experiences. The men, more nostalgic, more frequently mention the qualities of the past: the toys built by themselves (^{Souza, 2003}), the outdoor games (^{Jardim, 2006}), the quiet traffic in Belo Horizonte in the past (^{Ribeiro, 2002}), in contrast to the excesses and inadequacies of the present.

Final remarks

This research allows us to say that the elders’ gender belonging is one of the most significant factors in the process of self- invention and attribution to different meanings for aging, produced by autobiographical writing. We can say that, for this generational group, writing is not only about re-invent themselves through writing, but a way to appropriate of their own history, as the awareness of the end becomes increasingly present. In a moment that memory, little by little, fades away, becoming blurrier and the proximity to death is a reality, writing seems to ‘grasp’ something- to the limit, to ‘grasp’ life itself.

In this sense, some studies (^{Lourenço, Massi, & Lima, 2014}; ^{Dias & Campos, 2016}), done mainly in the area of Psychology, pointed that the autobiographic writing is, for the elders, a resource not only to re-signify their own existence, but a way to express their thoughts and emotions, even for therapeutical ends.

In traditional societies, the elders have a key social role- as they are the ones with the knowledge and pass it on to the new generations -, what has been going away in complex contemporary societies. Could writing represent this attempt to fill this void - by turning the elder into someone productive, with something to say, something to transmit (as there is no ritual space for listening) that, at least supposedly, could be read (as s/he cannot be listened anymore) by the new generations? The analysis allows us to affirm that writing about their own lives - which can be potentialized in educational practices towards/constructed to/with the elders - can allow a re-positioning of the place held by these subjects in contemporary societies, marked, especially, by the omnipresence of written culture.