Leitura literária e protagonismo negro na escola: Problematizando os conflitos étnico-raciais

Abstract

Can the practice of reading children's literature texts that positively mobilize the question of black identity contribute to the perception of identity and the questioning of racism in school? This is an issue raised in front of the following problem: What is the role of the school when faced to a black child that does not recognize his/her ethnic and racial attributes? Despite the speech entangled by common sense, a black child does not recognize his/her skin color, hair or other of their ethnic features for being born racist. For Bakhtin (2003), the identity is constituted in the otherness, so a person always reflects the other and his or her enunciation carries echoes of other people's speeches. The literature, because of its aesthetic and humanizing function, can mobilize the process of recognition and appreciation of the black identity, by putting in evidence the ethnic and racial conflicts in school and enabling the redefinition of the subjectivity of black children. The present dissertation focus on the reading and questioning of four works of children's literature that considered the role of the black identity and ethnic-racial issues in its aesthetic design. To give theoretical support to the reflections proposed in this research, scholars are invited to dialogue in the work, especially Candido (1995), in his defense of the humanizing function of the literature; Bakhtin (2003), with the conception of language as a social practice; Silva (2000), Hall (2000) and Goffman (2008), in their approach and discussions on the construction of identity; and Chevalier (2010) and Gomes (2001), with their studies on ethnic-racial relations. For supporting the hypothesis motivated in the research, this work also contains a reading project developed for children in primary education. The project is organized in didactic sequences and involves literary works that feature black actors, valuing, consequently, the African-Brazilian history and culture. The overall aim of this work is to reaffirm the school's role in the questioning of ethnic and racial conflicts.