The work of reading literature in Brazilian basic education: interpretation and understanding between legal, economic and political

Abstract

Questions have been raised in the literature about language teaching methodologies (in linguistic analysis, literature, reading and writing) in school education. Several works have been produced that contribute to the debates about the role of reading literature in Portuguese and how to develop it. However, even so, there still seems to be a gap when it comes to investing in works that combine literary theories (e.g. narratology), pedagogical theories and discursive theories. As a result, some important references have been launched, but these still reinforce the legal, economic and political relations that lead teachers (responsible for teaching the reading of literature) and students (trainee readers of literature) to make identifications which need to be understood in terms of how they operate if debate is to be fostered about the continued presence of authoritarianism and liberalism in literature reading practices in school education. This leads us to some fundamental concepts of discourse analysis developed by Michel Pêcheux and Eni Orlandi, such as interpretation, comprehension, reading, authorship and subject, and to some reflections by Dermeval Saviani on the historicity of teacher training and of a historical and critical pedagogy in Brazil. Drawing on these references, a reading of Letramento Literário (2006), by Rildo Cosson, is proposed. This book is a popular reference in literature teacher training courses in Brazil. From the discursive analysis of some passages from this book, we aim to understand the functioning of statements that, ironically, end up corroborating legal, economic and political relations in language and which therefore merit attention when developing reading skills (and in the recognition of their social division). They can be seen as paraphrasing ideas of authoritarianism and productivism, and the exclusion of some subjective positions in the formation of society (transformed by the metaphor of “reading freedom”, “reader freedom” through literacy).