Praxiologias nas aulas de Literaturas de Língua Inglesa: um olhar sobre A tempestade, de Shakespeare, na perspectiva decolonial

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss an experience proposed by a professor of English Literatures to problematize language issues and the construction of subaltern subjectivities in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, from decolonial perspectives. We also aim at reflecting on how students perceive the issues of language and subordinate bodies in the aforementioned play. As a theoretical-epistemological framework, we rely on studies involving literary education (CARBONIERI, 2016; CHINWEIZU, 1987; MACHADO; SOARES, 2021; PEREIRA, 2019, 2020) and on decolonial studies (CASTRO-GÓMEZ, 2007;LANDER, 2005;QUIJANO, 2007;WALSH, 2007). This qualitative research involved a professor of English Language Literature II, five academics who were majoring in Modern Languages (Portuguese and English) at a private institution in the Stateof Goiás, Brazil. The empirical material was composed by remotely held discussions about the play The Tempest, and texts written by the students. We could notice the broadening of the students' perspectives on the Shakespearean text, expressed in the reading they made of the characters' speeches through decolonial lenses. Furthermore, our discussions pointed out that, by using decolonial praxiologies in English literature classes, the students were more critical and realized that, through literary texts, they could understand several aspects related to social inequities they had not noticed when studying them in a conventional way.