A formação do leitor literário no ensino médio: uma proposta de ensino a partir da leitura de O Alienista, de Machado de Assis

Abstract

Traditionally, within the high school curriculum, literature has been taught primarily through a historiographical perspective, focusing on the presentation of characteristics of literary periods. Under this approach, students’ contact with literary texts is limited to fragments, which prevents them from developing into critical literary readers. Drawing on the conceptions of Antonio Candido (2023), Tzvetan Todorov (2009), Roland Barthes (2017), Leyla Perrone-Moisés (2016), and Rildo Cosson (2014) regarding literature, we argue that it is the school’s responsibility to promote the reading of canonical Brazilian literary works, aimed at fostering students' literary literacy. Thus, considering the guidelines prescribed by the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base (BNCC, 2018) and the reading capabilities for citizenship proposed by Roxane Rojo (2004), this action research aims to analyze the reading and comprehension process of Machado de Assis’s The Alienist (O alienista), conducted through reading circles in a third-year high school class at a full-time state school. The workshops were structured based on Rildo Cosson’s (2014) basic sequence, which comprises the following stages: motivation (preparing the student to access the text), introduction (presenting the author and the work), reading, and interpretation. Data were generated through pre- and post-workshop questionnaires, textual interpretation activities, and the production of texts for a fanzine. Results indicate that, through this systematic study, students were able to engage with the literary work in greater depth. By mobilizing their comprehension, appreciation, and critical response capabilities, they were also able to engage in a critical dialogue with the work through their own original textual productions. As an outcome of this research, we have developed a pedagogical workbook containing proposed activities, to be shared with other high school teachers so that these practices may be incorporated into literature instruction.