The Encounter with African Literatures in the Teaching and Learning of Literary Theory: Experiences in Dialogue

Abstract

This article results from a set of reflections on the teaching of Theory of Literature in the public university through the reading of African Literatures. The starting point was the sending of an e-mail, made by a professor of higher education, to a group of former students, from which she received a response from seven of the twenty-one contacted. Based on the testimonies received, written by students from different periods of entry, the article was built by several hands, enabling the articulation of an experimental text, in which there is at the same time the personal aspect of the memoirist report and the critical content of academic reflection. In this sense, the most recurrent points among the reports were: the finding of the predominance of a Eurocentric curriculum in the area of Letters, in disagreement with law 10.639/03; the dialogical character of the classes, allowing the exchange of knowledge; and the gradual change in the reading repertoire of the Literary Theory disciplines operated by the incorporation of African and Afrodiasporic authors in the teacher's menus. With this text, it is intended to collaborate with the debate around the inclusion and analysis of literary texts from counter-hegemonic literatures such as African, without adopting a hierarchical attitude.