Vol. 16 No. 35 (2023): Françoise Choay's intellectual itineraries
Revista Paranoá dedicates this special issue to the life and work of Françoise Choay [1925- ]. It bears reminding that, in this special issue of Paranoá, attention paid to Choay’s textual enunciation is extended to incoming manuscripts. It is not our intention, as guest editors, to naturalise the fact that the Call for Papers is being put out by a Brasília-based Brazilian journal, or to simplify the situation. In other words, it is not only a matter of recalling that Choay visited the city during its construction or of highlighting the texts that resulted from such an experience (CHOAY, 1959a; 1959b), but also of acknowledging that proposing a debate on the topic via a Brazilian journal is not the same as doing so via a French journal. Even though primary sources are harder to obtain on the part of Brazilian researchers, distance (geographic and cultural) allows authors to benefit from an alternative framing of the issue and, thus, to escalate the debate regarding the circulation and reception of Choay’s texts. For instance: to what extent did and do Choay’s social and gender status impact on the interpretation of her work in her home country? Could a study on the operative use of her work in architecture schools challenge the relationship established by readers with theoretical books? Would revisiting books widely regarded as textbooks, such as those of Choay, also help us acknowledge the terms of her appropriations? That is, a means of producing a kind of anthropology of teaching and readings in architecture?
