pedro bloch: a listener of the children's grace

Abstract

In the second half of the twentieth century, the medical doctor, journalist and writerPedro Bloch (1914-2004), maintained a humorous section telling children stories in themagazines Manchete and Pais & Filhos, which later turned into books: his children'sanecdotes. In addition to himself talking to his little patients in the office and collectingraw material to write his texts, Bloch also encouraged his readers and well-known adultsto listen to the boys, so that they could experience the revealing contact as that peculiarperception of the world, which is the precisely what he sought to express in his anecdotes.The intention to listen to the children and to dialogue with them was the key to the workof the Bloch with the children, what we call Project “Criança diz cada uma!”, but alsocorresponded to a trend at the time, followed by intellectuals like João Guimarães Rosaand Walter Benjamin, who went not only to listen to the children, but also to record theirutterances, always with the intention of inserting them in the historical cultural dialogue.In this text we try to present the work of Bloch with the humor and the orality of thechildren, and also to discuss its consequences for the writing of a new History of thechildhood, that also considers the voice of the small ones about themselves.