THE ROLE OF VISUAL EDUCATION AND THE ICONOLOGY ON THE NATIONAL VALUES EXALTATION AND INCLUSION OR REJECTION OF THE FOREIGN

Abstract

The present study started from the premise that nowadays is quite important to discuss nationalism as a feeling of belonging to a group that considers itself capable of forming an autonomous nation. In this perspective, it is proper to investigate the role of education as a launcher of the exaltation of national values as well the inclusion or rejection of the foreign, depending on how is directed. Thus, we selected two films as objects of analysis, which embody the formulation of the founder’s myth of a nation: The Discovery of Brazil (1937), by Humberto Mauro, and Triumph of the Will (1934), by Leni Riefenstahl. We concluded that each film utilize an iconographic symbology - respectively the cross and the flag – in order to show ritualistic sceneries that update the founder’s myth and control the meanings of the images for the comprehension of the symbols as emblems of the entity nation.