Literary and Cultural Studies: A Learning Strategy for Literacies

Abstract

Having as references the public policies adopted in Brazil since the end of the 1990s, the PCNs (National Curricular Parameters), and authors such as Magda Soares (1988) and Vincent Jouve (2012), the aim of this work is to analyze and defend the role of literary studies to promote social inclusion and literacies for undergraduate students in Language and Literature courses. These policies point out the University's need to face a Brazilian reality which requires an urgent dialogue between secondary school and University, as well as amongst the various fields of knowledge, in order to make it possible for the student who comes from that reality to find a space where their competences can be used as a trigger for the acquisition of new knowledge. Establishing a dialogue between school and University makes possible a better understanding of the educational level of those students, and therefore the creation of learning strategies that may prove to be more effectively inclusive, and consequently accelerating their process of literacies. Literary studies, for their intercultural aspect and because they offer a complex philosophical thought, have been proved an effective means of advancing these goals. This work is supported by a didactic experience at a Federal University in Southern Brazil.