Archiving the pandemic - historian's projects and "duty to memory"

ABSTRACT

The years 2020 and 2021 brought significant changes to our lives. New habits were introduced in everyday life from the need for social isolation and the way we face death was also radically affected. The article seeks to reflect on the fundamental role of the historian in recording the pandemic, based on the presentation of four works produced in this period that directly related the archive, memory, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The debate revolves around the possibility of reflecting on the "duty of memory" and the production of documents that may, in the future, help us understand how Brazil reached the level of more than half a million deaths from the disease in so little. time.