“COPULESE”: proposta de atividades didáticas a partir do léxico do conto “Os chapéus transeuntes”, de Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

This essay stems from the story “Os chapéus transeuntes” (“The passing hats”), by Guimarães Rosa, which will provide linguistic material to be used in two possible didactic activities. In the first one, a list of unusual words or neologisms that are found in the story is provided, and their playfulness with the language might not only provoke reflections on lexicon and even on the origin of the language, but also arouse the interest of the students in getting to know better the author of that paraphernalia. In the sequence, another list (following Rosa’s procedure, known to have loved lists), now of dictionary words, tries to distinguish the nuances of expressions that gravitate around the central theme of the tale, the “pride”; that intends to direct the attention to detail and to recognize that each term, no matter how similar it seems to others, is singular. In order to unite the fields of Literature and Linguistics in a single didactic practice that encourages students to appreciate how both of them can dialogue, the aim is to develop the linguistic consciousness of the students from an especially inventive text with controversial content from the domain of Moral Philosophy. The methodology of the article is descriptive, presenting the two suggestions of didactic proposals, together with material for application (the lists); the methodology of the activities from the guidelines exposed in the article is open, according to the planning of each teacher. The target audience of the two exercises are high school students or even undergraduate students in Literature. As a result, the student is expected to approach the author considered “difficult” through an unusual perspective that can soften that first contact, expanding the vocabulary in a systematic way (with activity two) and awakening the latent linguistic creativity(from activity one).