BARRETO, J. P.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/0454160662472977; BARRETO, Johne Paulino.
Résumé:
This research reinforces the idea of teaching literature as a means for possible
discussions, in the classroom, on taboo topics. Through three poems of Catullus (48,
81, and 99) as well as the culture of Ancient Rome, we discuss the theme homoaffectivity.
After that, we take to the classroom these poems in order to debate about
the referred topic, so we can make the students reflect and discuss about the
relationship between people of the same sex, thus forming critical citizen – reaching
the goal of teaching literature in accordance with both the Curriculum Guidelines for
Secondary Education (OCEM, 2006) and the Curriculum Frameworks for Secondary
Education in Paraíba (2006). Such documents regulate the teaching of literature in
secondary education in Brazil. Therefore, this study aims at ( 1 ) Inserting into the daily
lives of students Latin texts related to the theme homo-affectivity through three poems
of Catullus; ( 2 ) Encouraging students to read, thus contributing to the formation of
critical- reflective readers; ( 3 ) Suggesting ways of working in the classroom the
theme homo-affectivitythrough texts of Latin literature. Our corpus consists of
discussions in the classroom after reading the poems of Catullus, and of the
writtenactivities implemented in the last meeting of our intervention. We are
theoretically grounded on both André (2006) and some texts of Latin literature to
discuss the homo-affectivity in Ancient Rome culture, and also on Compagnon (2003)
and Jauss (1979) to study about the reception of literary texts.The regulatory
curriculum documents before above helped us not only to reflect upon the teaching of
literature in secondary education, but also to think of activities to work the literary text
with the students. The result of this research showed that it is possible to work taboo
topics in the classroom using Latin literature, and that the students had a good
reception to Latin texts. When reading is shared in a dialogic way, it allows students to
engage actively in the process of conveying meaning and makes themfeel free to
express their opinion. Finally, we conclude that students are in daily contact with new
situations and constant modifications in teaching. Therefore,teachers should bring to
classroom students’ social reality, encouraging them to read from the Latin literature to
the Brazilian one.
