conceituao de cultura, aps fazendo uma retrospectiva histrica dos mtodos de ensino
de lnguas de como era ensinada a cultura dentro desses mtodos at o momento atual , e
num terceiro momento analisar o papel da linguagem na cultura e finalmente fazer uma
reflexo sobre o professor, aprendiz e a cultura no ensino de lnguas.
1. DEFINIO DE CULTURA
1.1 Definio Antropolgica de Cultura
"Cultura todo
saudao dirigida a algum ... a forma de educar a prole ... o modo de vida da
sociedade ... Cultura um termo que d realce aos costumes de um povo." ( Ullmann,
1980:86 )
2.
RETROSPECTIVA
HITRICA
DAS
ALTERAES
vrias transformaes
metodolgicas
que conforme citaes acima percebe-se que o ensino de lngua inglesa era centrado no
ensino da cultura, mas no de uma forma que produzisse a integrao entre a cultura da
lngua que era ensinada e a cultura de quem estava aprendendo uma lngua estrangeira.
Com todas as mudanas metodolgicas, chegamos a abordagem comunicativa, que abre
oportunidades para vermos o ensino de lnguas integrado com a cultura e percebendo este
ensino mais crtico. Pennycook apud Bannell ( 1997:275) diz que, "to use English is to
engage in social action which produces and reproduces social and cultural relations. The
worldliness of English referes both to its local and its global position, both to the way in
which it reflects social relations and constitutes social relations and thus the worldliness of
English is always a question of cultural politics..."
A lngua d acesso cultura e, por outro lado, para aprender uma lngua
preciso um mergulho cultural, a aquisio das habilidades orais e escritas,
isto , a competncias comunicativa no fica assegurada apenas com o
conhecimento das estruturas lingsticas(...) saudar uma pessoa, fazer um
convite, pedir um favor, servir um cafezinho, pedir desculpas(...) so todas
situaes que se inserem profundamente num contexto cultural . ( Dalpian,
1996:51)
Quero salientar que cabe ao professor de lngua inglesa saber utilizar esses
momentos, e
discutir com seus alunos os hbitos de qual lngua est sendo ensinada e
fazer uma anlise contrastiva com a sua lngua materna, para que assim o seu aluno
perceba que cultura da lngua que est aprendendo, tem suas diferenas mas que nenhuma
superior a outra e sim
um outro
contexto. O objetivo principal quando se ensina uma lngua estrangeira perceber que
estamos aprendendo para nos comunicar atravs dessa nova lngua e sendo assim como
coloca ( Almeida Fillho, l993:15) conforme se vai aprendendo uma outra lngua essa se
desestrangeiriza
fazendo com que nosso aluno adquira a cultura do outro, mas sim saiba que um povo se
comporta de uma forma e outro se comporta de outra forma. Mas que com isso nossa
cultura no deixa de ser superior ou inferior a outra . E que muitas vezes confundido com
a situao econmica do pas da
inglesa a maioria
dos pases
como os Estados Unidos, Inglaterra, Canad , Austrlia e Nova Zelndia e isso acaba
gerando na maioria um sentimento de inferioridade e assim passando a considerar a cultura
do outro melhor do que a prpria.
O papel do professor nesse momento muito importante para tentar resgatar
no seu aluno atravs das habilidades lingsticas a auto-confiana, identidade poltica,
social e cultural do aluno ( Moita Lopes, 1996:59). A sala de aula de lngua estrangeira
uma tima oportunidade para discutir essas questes, seja atravs de textos, filmes,
poemas, msicas trazidas para o interior da sala de aula para desmistificar alguns
esteritipos
que foram se construindo atravs dos tempos. E assim sendo possvel fazer
boas discusses nas aulas de lngua inglesa fazendo com que o aluno perceba que a lngua
inglesa necessria sim, mas como um instrumento de comunicao com o mundo e no
como sendo uma lngua desse ou daquele pas. Com essas discusses o aluno vai perceber
que a lngua inglesa no vem como instrumento de aculturao ou dominao e sim como
uma maneira de dominar o instrumento de comunicao daqueles que nos dominam. Pois
a partir do momento que domino os instrumentos que o dominador domina que passo a
poder me comunicar com ele.
" O ensino de lnguas estrangeiras deve enfatizar que os esteretipos atribudos
a cada povo, inclusive o nativo, no so absolutos, ou seja, nenhum povo desse ou
daquele jeito. O ser humano complexo e alguma variao mais genrica de
comportamento que possa existir no se deve a caractersticas inerentes aos povos. "
( Moita Lopes, 1996:32)
A pesquisa abaixo, foi feita com intuito de utiliza-la nesta comunicao, foi
realizada em 1998 com professores do Ensino Fundamental e Mdio de Lngua Inglesa da
Rede Estadual de Ensino do municpio de Cascavel. Esta pesquisa foi feita com 10
professores.
Observando o quadro abaixo podemos perceber quais so os esteretipos que
ficam mais evidentes . Mas na opo "trabalhador", os professores responderam o mesmo
tanto para o povo brasileiro quanto para os povos de lngua inglesa.
Faa um x ao lado do adjetivo que melhor caracteriza o povo brasileiro e os
povos de lngua inglesa. Se tal descrio irrelevante, faa um x no trao do meio:
Povo brasileiro
Irrelevante
Povos de lngua
Sem resposta
inglesa
a. honesto
b. desonesto
c. srio
d. brincalho
3
9
10
e. educado
f. mal-educado
g. trabalhador
h. preguioso
i. romntico
10
j. realista
4
6
l. formal
m. informal
4
5
10
n. disciplinado
o. indisciplinado
Tabela retirada do livro: Moita Lopes, Luiz Paulo da. Oficina de Lingstica
Aplicada. A natureza social e educacional dos processos de Ensino Aprendizagem de
Lnguas. Campinas, SP. Mercado de Letras, l996.
5. CONSIDRAES FINAIS
6. REFERNCIAS BIBLIOGRFICAS:
p.49-
No "Playground" da Linguagem1
Artigo publicado in Contexturas 3, SP:APLIESP, 1996, pp. 11-19
Sonia Zyngier
UFRJ
1. Introduo
Apesar da existncia de um movimento que caracteriza a dcada de 90 como
essencialmente interdisciplinar, ainda com certa frequncia que a atitude de muitos
professores de lnguas e de literaturas estrangeiras no Brasil me fazem lembrar Kipling,
quando diz: "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"2 . Na
realidade, a crtica que Jakobson havia feito separao entre a lingustica e a literatura 3
comea a ser ouvida em vrios nveis. Em 1989, lana-se uma srie de publicaes que
abordam a interface entre lngua e literatura. Afirma Carter, o editor, na introduo: "H vrias
formas em que lngua e literatura podem ser combinadas e muitos objtivos tericos, prticos e
curriculares a serem realizados". Surgem cursos sobre o discurso literrio, integrando
lingustica e literatura, oficinas para desenvolver material didtico, cursos de conscientizao
sensibilizando o leitor linguagem literria do texto, cursos de reciclagem de professores. A
indstria de livros reflete esse interesse, investindo em obras que acreditam que a literatura
deva ser includa num aprendizado mais completo, participativo e eficaz de lngua estrangeira.
1 Este artigo, que contou com o apoio da Fundao Jos Bonifcio na fase de redao, aborda tema que
parte da tese de doutorado At the Crossroads of Language and Literature: Literary Awareness, Stylistics
and the Acquisition of Literary Skills in an EFLit Context defendida na Universidade de Birmingham
(Inglaterra) em 1994.
2 A Ballad of East and West in A Book of English Literature, F.B. Snyder R.G. Martin (eds.) 3rd edition,
artes no melhoravam o ser humano. Steiner4 , por exemplo, comenta que "os indivduos
podem tocar Bach bem e ler Pushkin com 'insight' noite enquanto trabalham em Auschwitz e
nos pores da polcia durante o dia". Com os avanos nos sistemas de comunicao tornando
o mundo menor, a necessidade de uma lngua franca se fez premente. Falado pela
comunidade econmica dominante, o ingls ganhou este status, e a lngua prevaleceu sobre a
literatura.
Nas regies do Brasil onde o ingls era lecionado, a ideologia, pronncia,
vocabulrio e canes norte-americanas comearam a ser assimilados junto com a cala Lee,
os hamburgers, hot-dogs, e chicletes, entre outros produtos e modas. Depois da 2a. Guerra
Mundial, a literatura americana comea a competir com a literatura inglesa por um espao no
currculo das universidades e vrios professores americanos foram enviados atravs de
Fundaes como a Fulbright. Com a guerra do Vietn, um fluxo bastante significativo de
jovens americanos sem qualquer treinamento pedaggico juntaram-se Fora de Paz (Peace
Corps) e meramente desertaram para "algum lugar da Amrica do Sul", onde sobreviveram
durante muito tempo ensinando ingls.
Se, por um lado, os costumes e ideologia norte-americanos ganhavam espao
em vrias partes do mundo, por outro, as instituioes tradicionais britnicas e o objetivo de se
adquirir "a pronncia da BBC" eram desafiados pela gerao de jovens ingleses. Na
Inglaterra, variaes lingusticas passaram a ser levadas em conta em nome da
democratizao e abertura do ensino. As minorias comeavam a ser ouvidas. Ao invs do
falar corretamente, procurava-se agora "comunicar com eficincia".
Este contexto histrico-social teve muita influncia no ensino de ingls em
outros pases. A noo semi-missionria de transmisso de valores culturais especficos foi
4 in Steiner, George (1968, 1972) Extraterritorial. Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution.
substituda por tticas que ofereciam vantagens econmicas mais imediatas, afetando o ensino
da literatura. Com a nfase na lngua falada, a literatura foi posta de lado como uma forma
arcaica e cristalizada de linguagem.
A partir da, os textos literrios passaram a ser considerados muito
conservadores ou complicados. O ensino de ingls se transformou numa metfora comercial,
um bem a ser comercializado e consumido. Cursos independentes de lngua proliferaram e se
tornaram sucessos comerciais. Muita gente enriqueceu. A indstria do livro floresceu e entrou
na fase da multimdia, incluindo cassettes, diapositivos, vdeos, etc. Para atrair os leitores, os
livros passaram a apresentar um layout primoroso, com fotos e cores, aumentando em muito o
custo, onerando o aluno, e acentuando as diferenas entre o ensino de lnguas na escola
particular e na rede pblica. Mais do que nunca se tornou verdadeira a observao de Alice
(no Pas das Maravilhas) de que um livro sem desenhos maante. O importante passou a ser
atrair os olhos do leitor, e no necessariamente sua mente.
Alm disso, estes livros, elaborados longe dos centros de consumo, so
escritos por pessoas que desconhecem os contextos onde o material ser utilizado. Para evitar
idiossincrasias locais e atingir um pblico numeroso, os livros pressupem uma platia
homogna, que no corresponde s realidades regionais.
Nesta segunda fase, o mito de quem domina o ingls se torna uma pessoa
melhor substitudo pelo mito de acesso a uma terra prometida de empregos maravilhosos e
de asceno social e econmica imediata. nesta fase que nos encontramos agora no Brasil,
em que a literatura est banida da sala-de-aula de lngua estrangeira.
No entanto, uma certa inquietao se fazer sentir desde o advento da Nova
Estilstica, cujas premissas esto implcitas no pronunciamento de Jakobson na Conferncia
de Indiana em 1958 citado acima. Esta preocupao coincide com os estudos literrios que
investigam a tessitura lingustica do texto, ou seja, maneira como a linguagem usada para
significar. Na Gr-Bretanha algumas universidades passaram a oferecer cursos de estilstica
4
buscando a integrao entre lngua e literatura e nos Estados Unidos torna-se grande a
preocupao com o que eles chamam de retrica.
interessante se notar que as mesmas tendncias no ensino de lngua que
haviam banido a literatura comeam agora a apoiar o uso de textos literrios. Seguindo-se s
correntes estruturalistas e sua nfase na produo correta da forma, os mtodos
comunicativos privilegiavam a negociao de significados, a internalizao dos rituais de
relaes sociais. Deste ngulo, a natureza representacional dos textos literrios fez com que
estes passassem a ser considerados de grande valor para o ensino de lngua. No texto literrio
padres sociais de interao poderiam ser vivenciados em situaes contextualizadas. Alm
disso, o texto literrio ajudaria a desenvolver uma rea de tolerncia frustrao lingustica.
Ou seja, na leitura do texto literrio o leitor tem mais pacincia para construir um significado.
Muitas vezes, inclusive, este no fica claro, mas o leitor consegue tolerar a indeciso. nesta
terceira fase que os estudos se encontram no momento. Segundo Duff & Maley5 ,
os ltimos 5 anos marcaram o renascimento do interesse
pela literatura como uma das fontes para o ensino de
lngua. Este livro uma tentativa de explorar o uso de
textos literrios e mtodos de ensino de lngua... Pois, se
a literatura est de volta, ela veste novas roupas.
6 in MacCabe, C. (1985) "English literature in a global context" in R. Quirk & H.G. Widdowson (eds.)
English in the World. Teaching and Learning the Languages and Literatures. Cambridge: CUP, pp. 37-51.
P. 47.
7 Widdowson, H. (1990) Aspects of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 177-8.
como a propaganda ou jornais, permitindo com que o indivduo seja capaz de desmascarar as
manipulaes do mercado e de interesses polticos.
4. Possveis resistncias
Uma boa estratgia de provar a validade de um assunto adiantar
argumentos que podero ser utilizados como oposio. Numa pesquisa recente, Lazar8 coleta
declaraes, que adaptarei nossa realidade e discutirei medida em que os for
apresentando:
Meus alunos no lem poesia nem em portugus, portanto, como podem l-las
em ingls?
Neste caso, um argumento no necessariamente se segue ao outro.
Conhecimento de literatura brasileira no necessrio para a leitura de textos estrangeiros. A
experincia tem demonstrado que muitos alunos brasileiros conseguem desenvolver uma
leitura, sensibilizao e interpretao de textos em ingles e depois ficarem estimulados a
aplicar os mesmos mtodos a textos de literatura em portugus.
No vejo problema em usar poesia com alunos que pretendem estudar literatura
professor precisa estar convencido dos benefcios de se usar um texto literrio para que ele
tambm se engaje no processo de mudana.
J tentei usar poesia com meus alunos, mas eles acharam difcil de entender e s
5. Proposta de abordagem
Bibliografia Resumida:
Teoria:
BRUMFIT, C.J. & CARTER, R.A. (1986) Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford:
O.U.P.
10
DENDRINOS, Bessie (1992) The EFL Textbook and Ideology. Athens: N.C. Grivas.
ELT Journal, volume 44, no. 3, July 1990. Oxford: O.U.P.
FOWLER, Roger (1986) Linguistic Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Histria:
GRAFF, Gerald (1987) Professing Literature. An Institutional History. Chicago &
London: The University of Chicago Press.
HOWATT, A.P.R. (1984) A History of English Language Teaching . Oxford: O.U.P.
Treinamento de professores:
CARTER, Ronald & LONG, Michael (1991) Teaching Literature. Essex: Longman.
COLLIE, Joanne & SLATER, Stephen (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom.
Cambridge: CUP.
DUFF, Alan & MALEY, Alan (1990) Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LAZAR, Gillian (1993) Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP.
MALEY, Alan & DUFF, Alan (1989) The Inward Ear. Cambridge: CUP.
WIDDOWSON, Henri (1992) Practical Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aplicao em sala-de-aula:
CARTER, Ronald & LONG, Michael (1987) The Web of Words. Exploring Literature
through Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
CARTER, Ronald & NASH, Walter (1990) Seeing Through Language. A Guide to the
Styles of English Writing. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
CLARKE, David F. (1989) Talk about Literature. London: Edward Arnold.
DURANT, Alan & FABB, Nigel (1990) Literary Studies in Action. London: Routledge.
MCRAE, John (1992) Wordsplay. London: Macmillan.
MONTGOMERY, Martin et alii. (1992) Ways of Reading. Advanced Reading Skills for
Students of English Literature. London & NY: Routledge.
11
1. Literatura prazer. Embora verdadeiro, esse argumento deve ser usado com cautela. H
pelo menos duas questes em jogo aqui. A primeira a da marginalizao da literatura que resulta
do tratamento da arte literria como um apndice. Uma sociedade que v seus cidados como
consumidores passveis de serem manipulados pelo discurso persuasivo da mdia no pode
entender a literatura como uma atividade necessria. Insiste em consider-la um prazer suprfluo.
Nas salas-de-aula, essa perspectiva se reflete na abordagem intuitiva que se d ao texto, no
achismo, numa explicao textual mais adjetiva do que interrogativa. A aula de literatura se
torna capricho de um currculo que no valoriza ou que no quer valorizar o ensino de literatura.
E por qu? A literatura pode levar o indivduo a refletir e consequentemente a perceber a
manipulao ideolgica daqueles que detm o poder. Essa postura fica evidente na proibio e
queima de livros que a Histria vm registrando atravs dos tempos nas mais diversas sociedades
que se utilizam da escrita. Ora, se a literatura exercita a mente, ela essencial para uma sociedade
que se torna cada vez mais cerebral.
Em segundo lugar, se literatura prazer, como transmitir esse prazer ao aluno? O que
prazer para o professor, pode no o ser para o aluno. Alm disso, o problema se complica j que
tanto professor quanto aluno so, na verdade, constructos. No existem na realidade do diaa-dia, quando o que se tm so indivduos diferentes, com histrias de vida diversas, com
caractersticas pessoais distintas. Outro fator de complicao est na transmisso. No se pode
usar o imperativo expresso na noo de que ler tem que ser uma atividade prazerosa.
necessrio que professores se conscientizem de que lhes cabe meramente propiciar a
oportunidade para que o prazer possa ser desfrutado.
A literatura ldica, sim, porm no sentido de ser um ato de poesis, uma forma de
colocar a prpria linguagem em observao, de, atravs deste ato, espelhar um modo de pensar e
agir. A literatura um evento ldico lingustico onde o leitor tem um encontro marcado com a
proposta verbal do texto. Nesse encontro, o leitor usufrui o prazer do jogo artstico que um
escritor desenvolve com a linguagem. Da a importncia de uma abordagem lingustica para a
leitura de um texto literrio. Se treinado, o aluno pode se dar conta de que determinados padres
lingusticos em quaisquer de seus nveis (fonolgico, morfo-sinttico, lexical ou do discurso) so
responsveis por um efeito que o texto causa no leitor. Por exemplo, uma rima pode resultar num
efeito encantatrio, uma subordinao pode responder por um clima de suspense, uma repetio
lexical pode gerar uma ironia. Quando o padro lingustico identificado pelo efeito que causa no
texto, ele se torna um padro estilstico2. Os padres estilsticos so ilimitados. Cada leitura, cada
produo de texto, pode gerar novos padres. Da a surpresa e a imprevisibilidade que
contribuem para o prazer de ler. Nesse sentido, literatura uma fonte de fruio permanente,
necessria e enriquecedora.
2. A linguagem de um texto literrio complexa, mas preciso discutir-se essa
complexidade para evitar que o leitor se afaste do texto. A noo de linguagem literria, de
desvio, foi introduzida pelos formalistas russos na dcada de 20. Estudos mais recentes mostram
que, na verdade, nenhum texto intrinsecamente literrio e que a literariedade no uma
essncia natural. Ela advm de uma relao entre o leitor, o autor e o texto, que implica na
Zyngier, S. (1994) At the Crossroads of Language and Literature: Literary Awareness, Stylistics and the
Teaching of Literature to EFLit Students. Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Birmingham.
Derrida, J. (1992) Acts of Literature. D. Attridge (ed.) London & NY: Routledge.
Carter, R.A. & Nash, W. (1983) Language and Literariness. Prose Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 123-141.
5
Burton, D. (1980) Dialogue and Discourse. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
6
Simpson, P. (1993) Language, Ideology and Point of View. London & NY: Routledge.
4
A anlise da linguagem deste breve poema pode gerar uma srie de discusses
interessantes na sala-de-aula. O leitor sabe que o poema est no presente apesar de no haver
qualquer identificao do tempo verbal. O que ocorre que a escolha de these implica
proximidade em tempo e espao. Qual o efeito, ento, de se manter o poema no presente? Alm
disso, o que dizer da tenso criada pela utilizao de um termo como apparition, semanticamente
ligado ao fantasmagrico, a algo repentino e transitrio em contraste com a noo mais concreta
e definida de faces? Porque o poeta situou estes dois termos numa comparao? E o que dizer
do significado gerado ao colocar a palavra Mtro, um produto da industrializao, na vizinhana
de bough, um produto da natureza. De que forma a noo que o leitor tem de A Station
compara com essa viso do poeta? Estas so somente algumas das perguntas que podem ser
feitas a partir de uma percepo do uso de linguagem, sem que o professor tenha que explicar
que este poema um exemplo do movimento do Imagismo, que foi escrito em 1916 por Ezra
Pound, uma das figuras mais importantes do movimento modernista em lngua inglesa e que veio
como reao a manifestaes romnticas. O exame detalhado da linguagem deste poema permite
ao leitor experimentar acontecimentos semelhantes quele que se deu na mente do poeta e leva o
leitor a praticar um ato de imaginao.
Fludernik, M. (1993) The Fictions of Language and The Language of Fiction. NY: Routledge.
Derrida, J. (1992) Acts of Literature. D. Attridge (ed.) London & NY: Routledge.
poder discutir-se as diferenas entre povos e literaturas. O outro perigo a noo errnea de que
literatura torna o indivduo um ser melhor. Como afirmou Steiner10, os pores da polcia alem
durante a 2a. Guerra Mundial estavam repletos de pessoas que ouviam Bach e liam Pushkin de
manh e noite desempenhavam sua funo de torturadores.
bem verdade que a literatura estimula a reflexo. Ela contribui para a formao de um
indivduo mais embasado filosoficamente e com capacidade de questionar e buscar entender as
relaes complexas entre o ser humano, a sociedade e a linguagem. No entanto, ela no garante
que pessoas cultas se tornem indivduos melhores. Esta uma questo tica que vai alm dos
limites de nosso tema. Nas palavras de Sartre11, a cultura no salva nada nem ningum, ela no
justifica. Mas um produto do homem: ele se projeta, se reconhece nela; s este espelho crtico
lhe oferece a prpria imagem.
6. Literatura cultura em ao e, portanto, deve integrar os currculos de 1o., 2o. e 3o. graus,
mas no como uma atividade suprflua ou complementar. Deixo de falar da importncia da
integrao entre o ensino de lngua e literatura, por demais extenso para ser tratado neste artigo e
menciono a possibilidade de um professor de outra rea, como histria, quando estiver discutindo
um determinado assunto (por exemplo, a 1a. Grande Guerra) convidar um colega para apresentar
um poema sobre esse tema, discutir com os alunos a forma com que um poeta viveu este fato.
Mas para que isso possa ocorrer, faz-se necessrio repensar currculos para que professores das
diversas disciplinas possam trabalhar de forma integrada.
Schmidt, S. (1982) Foundations for the empirical study of literature: the components of a basic theory.
Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
10
Steiner, G. (1972) Extraterritorial. Middlesex: Penguin.
11
Sartre, J.P. (s/d) As palavras. RJ: Nova Fronteira, p. 182.
Por fim, aponto aqui para um ensino de literatura menos voltado informao e mais
preocupado com a conscientizao lingustica e cultural do aluno. A prpria institucionalizao do
ensino pressupe uma orientao poltica que preciso ser discutida Mas, acima de tudo,
preciso deixar claro que a literatura uma manifestao do imaginrio e da criatividade, onde no
h certo ou errado, onde a lgica humana pode ser desafiada aos seus limites, onde culturas e
ideologias so comparadas. Voltando epigrafe,
1. Introduction
Like the recorded history of the New World, we cannot really look too far behind
when we deal with literature as an institutionalized subject for teaching and researching.
According to Graff (1987:1) there were no academic literary studies in America or
anywhere else until the formation of language and literature departments in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century, although the use of literature as a vehicle of education goes back to
ancient times. He adds: But the idea that literature could or should be taught - rather than
simply enjoyed or absorbed as part of the normal upbringing of gentlefolk - was a novel one
and no precedents existed for organizing such an enterprise.
Since its institutionalization as a discipline at the turn of the century to at least 30 years
ago, the teaching of literature followed the long established model which Freire (1970) called
the banking education. From this perspective, learners were seen as containers to be filled by
teachers. The more the teachers filled the containers, the better educators they would be. The
1
A version of this paper was presented at the ENPULI 97 seminar in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
more passively the learners allowed themselves to do so, the better the learners. Education
was thus conceived as an act of depositing. In this context, the learners role was to receive
the deposits, keep and file them (Freire, 1970:58 - my translation). Education and research in
literature followed such previsible paths that training for the job was not considered relevant.
The classroom situation involved explicit teaching, with the teacher pointing out the meaning of
the text to a very silent audience of note-takers. Research was based on theoretical
argumentation of concepts, using theoretical developments in literary theory to produce new
readings of texts. Empirical research was not contemplated.
When the literary text crossed the borders of the discipline to be used in EFL
classrooms, the main objective was to enable learners to translate canonized texts in order to
acquire a better cultural model. Thus literature was considered a kind of secular scritpure
(Scholes, 1985: 13). In this sense, Widdowsons Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature
(1975) should be regarded as a landmark. It inaugurated a route linking the study of literature
to the study of language through stylistics, creating a porosity which allowed advances in one
area to flow into the other. Since 1975, many works have contributed to change and
strengthen this link. A direct consequence has been the shift of focus from the work and the
author to that of the language of literary texts. As any change always finds support in history,
this one was not original. It owes a debt to the paradigmatic change in literary theory which
took place in the early twenties with the Russian Formalists. If, on the one hand, this move has
brought in its wake a series of materials on how to use literary texts in language classrooms, on
the other hand it has also favoured the divide between what is called the study of literature
and the use of literature as a resource. We find literature teachers sneering at stylisticians
who do not really do literature, who are language teachers or, even worse, linguists who
pose as literature teachers.
2. The historical picture in Brazil
Narrowing the focus to a specific context, the life trajectory of the literature text in the
Brazilian EFL classroom can be seen as going through three different moment: exaltation,
rejection, and reintegration. The exaltation period dates back to the years before the 60s,
when reading literature in a foreign language was part of language teaching and the student
translated the text from target to source language or vice-versa. Sometimes there were also
books of grammar followed by collections of exercises for learners to acquire the rules of a
standardized norm. The main objective was to enable the learner to read literary texts
produced in the target language in order to assimilate the foreign culture from the collection of
canonized texts. This objective was based on the belief that by learning literature the student
would become a "morally better person" (the Arnoldian perspective).
In the 60s and 70s, with the intensification of international exchanges, the need of an
international lingua franca was evident. With the emphasis on spoken language many shunned
literature for being language in a crystallized form and, for being, in their terms, even worse:
deviant (cf. Collie & Slater, 1987:2).This was the rejection period. The objectives in EFL
teaching shifted from the myth that mastering English would make better persons to the myth
that learners would have access to a promised land of better jobs and social and economic
promotion.
Since the 80s there has been a gradual change brought about by studies on the
interface between language and literature which argue that literary texts are amenable to the
same analytical tools used for everyday language (cf. Cook, 1992; Fowler, 1986; Carter &
Nash, 1983). The main argument holds that literary texts reflect patterns of social interaction in
contextualized situations (Collie & Slater, 1988:2). The literary text is now being reintegrated
into the classroom on terms which differ from those of the 60s, but is still used as an appendix.
In the 90s, the situation has not changed much.
The following table provides a summarized history of what has been happening to
literary texts in the EFL classroom in Brazilian schools:
Stages
Use of Literary texts
1. up to the early 60s
2. the 70s
Objectives
I am aware that what I will propose now may run the risk of simplification. I do it
intentionally as I think it is important to be aware of the directions we are taking, where we
stand in relation to what other professionals in the area are doing and thinking, what sort of
research we are carrying out and what its ideological implications are. This is why, although
provisional and dangerous, classifications are necessary. And they are badly needed in the
area of teaching literature -- a kind of no-mans land, still in search of cartographers willing to
map the area, not with the purpose of drawing boundaries and establishing limits, but of finding
out where we stand and where we are going. I am aware that the mapping I am about to
propose is a necessary generalization.
If we consider both the teaching and the research of literature being practiced today in
literature and in language classrooms we may be led to think of four different strands which are
not self-excluding. Much overlapping takes place. These strands should rather be seen as
tendencies. It is also important to stress that teachers may wear different hats, depending on
their objectives and specific setting. One may teach literature according to one strand but do
research according to another. Flexibility here is a key-word.
Strand 1: The content and context of literature
This type of research and practice is the most widely practiced by literature teachers.
It is generally based on survey and historical inquiry. Among its main objectives we can
mention2:
to familiarize readers with acknowledged great works and writers
to study works of minority writers or other non-canonical production
to learn about the development of a national cultural tradition
to produce critical views on works seen as part of the history of literatures in English and/or
of a literary tradition
Besides anthologies, a representative textbook of this strand states that the objective is
to provide students with an introduction to the reading of British and American literature by
concentrating ... on helping them actually read what are sometimes difficult texts, while at the
same time giving them some help with literary history, biography, differences in genre, technical
literary terminology and literary criticism (Gower & Pearson, 1986)
2
Some items on this list are from Durant & Fabb (1990).
the past 50 years? How relevant to classroom practices are the current assertions of PostStructuralist and Deconstructive criticism? What can we learn from Reader Response critics?
How do we distinguish among the varying positions they represent on the role of readers in the
literary transaction? This strand is based on the interactional nature of reading and responding
to texts and aims at cultivating substantiated and critical readings. The idea of intervention is
derived from Pope (1995) who holds that The best way to understand how a text works is to
change it: to play around with it, to intervene in it some way ... , and then to try to account for
the exact effect of what you have done. This practice promotes writing and rewriting
exercises to point out the creative role of the reader in the construction of any text. It tries to
help learners consider what has not been done in order to hightlight what has: a proposition
which lies at the core of Hallidayan linguistics. It is believed that this method illuminates many
issues such as textual appropriation, point of view and ideology, enabling a more critical
reading.
Strand 4: Classroom Discourse
At the moment, we are witnessing the beginning of this strand, comprised of work
being developed on classroom discourse. Based on ethnography, its main interest is to
describe how learners and teachers interact in literature classrooms in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the instruction and improve pedagogical conditions. Concentration is placed
on the dialogue established in the context of the literature class. It takes into consideration the
way these actors construct their realities socially. In Brazil, it stems from work developed by
applied linguists at UNICAMP, UFRJ, PUC/SP and other centres (Menezes de Souza,
1997).
The following table presents a comparative perspective of these four strands:
The content
context of lit.
& Literary
Discourse
(or
Lang.
Through
Lit.)
Literary
Awareness
and/or
Intervention
Classroom
Discourse
OBJECTIVE
acquire knowledge
of and about the
language of literary
texts (from lgg.
acquisition
to
understanding lit.
discourse)
understand
and
develop
critical
reading
and
metacognition
METHODOLOGY
product-focused;
top-down
BRIDGES
product-focused;
top-down, using
linguistic theory to
understand
the
workings
&
implications of lgg
in a lit. text
linguistics
(descriptive &
critical); written
discourse;
stylistics
process-oriented;
bottom-up; start
from the readers
own store of
knowledge and
build up to
linguistic theory.
linguistics
(descrip. & crit.);
rhetoric;stylistics;
cognitive psychol.
MATERIALS
anthologies
understand
teacher/stud
ent
interaction
or
the
dialogue
established
in
the
context of a
lit.class.
processoriented;
bottom-up.
sociol. &
anthropol.;
linguistics
applied to
the
classroom
textbooks
with textbooks
with Possible:
theoretical
activities gradually exercises on
explanations and leading into theory observation
exercises
of classroom
more
symmetrical
pedagogy
1995
1996
1997
Strand 1
Strand 2
Strand 3
Strand 4
44
56
62
2
0
4
2
2
0
0
1
0
Transl/
Comp.Lit
5
4
6
Total
53
63
72
The literature/language teacher must be aware of the social project in which and for
which s/he is working. Teachers are part of the group Giroux (1994) called transformative
intellectuals, who promote an environment which enables the participants to reflect on their
day-to-day life and the society to which they belong. In tune with Critical Discourse Stylistics,
their methodologies should also aim at a textual reading which discloses issues such as race,
gender, class, rights and institutions, how these relations and perspectives are expressed and
how they function in society (eg. to persuade, dominate, express solidarity, warn, etc.).
If we combine the contributions of the Empirical Studies of Literature (ESL) (Schmidt,
1982; Rusch, 1996, among others) and critical pedagogy (for instance, Pennycook, 1992;
Giroux, 1993; hooks, 1994), we may be in a position to design a framework which provides a
more culturally-engaged and explicit perspective. Here I would like to propose a more
systematized approach towards a contextualized teaching of literature, one which may set the
agenda for future research and practice. By systematizing I mean making explicit the
organization of an epistemological system by means of which one can understand the
patterning of literary actions (as conceived bt ESL). The main objective here is to move away
from the fiction of a neutral and apolitical classroom and to concentrate on the context in which
teaching takes place. I would call this model a critical literary pedagogy (CLP), one which
is interdisciplinary in nature and stems from the developments of three major areas, as
illustrated in the following diagram:
10
Economy
& Technology
O R
Y
Social Structures
& Regulations
Lit.
Lang.
Educ.
Media
Politics &
the Legal System
Diagram 1 - A model for a critical literary pedagogy
This diagram shows literature and language in the same relationship as that which
informs stylistics but historicizes literary education, setting it agains the background of the
changing systems since, as Margaret Atwood in her novel The Robber Bride (1993) puts it,
... nothing begins when it begins and nothings over when its over. We need a diachronic
perspective to understand how we have arrived at the present moment and be in a position to
project future developements.
Literary education is also affected by other factors such as population, politics,
economy, social structures and regulations. I have borrowed these macro dimensions from
Ruschs proposal for the description of the media system (1996:306) and adapted them for a
CLP perspective.
The population dimension concerns the degree of literacy and education, population
figures, the people directly or indirectly involved in the process who have impact on the way
teaching is effected in a classroom. Politics involves the political structure, the type of political
system of a country, the degree of participation of the population in the political process, the
legal status of the individual (e.g. human and civil rights), the international status of the country
and its relation with other political systems. The economic dimension includes the type of
11
economic system, the economic relations between individuals and groups (both nationally and
internationally), the distribution of income among the population, what they can afford, the free
time an individual is allowed, etc. Literary education is also affected by the social structures as
seen through the type of social stratification, the type of housing and the social interactions
these arragements promote (condos, slums, detached housing, flats, etc.). Technology
concerns the availability of media to the population, what access they have to the new
advances, how informed they can be, to what degree they can engage in cyberspace
interaction.
Only with an understanding of this wider context can we see how education may
throw light in institutions, policies and practices which allow for the advent of literature. Only
then can we think of literary education as promoting critical individuals who can act as agents
for social transformation. The next step is to work out these dimensions in more detail and see
how they affect the teaching of literature in each specific context.
5. Conclusion
What is to be seen with some alarm is that the traditional divide between doing
research and teaching literature is not being questioned. Literature teachers continue to
dissociate their research from their practice. Moreover, teachers are not trained for the job nor
are they stimulated to develop theoretical issues about what, why, and how to teach. In
addition, language teachers are reluctant to discuss why and how to introduce literature in their
classes despite Kramschs remarks (1993:131) that Foreign language learners have to be
exposed to different types of texts, from the most conventional to the most particular, but if
they are eventually to find their own voice in the foreign language and culture, literary texts can
offer them models of particularity and opportunity for the dialogic negotiation of meaning.
Literature is the language of representation par excellence and, in line with critical linguistics,
we can say that it is language used as social practice for social transformation. The study of
literature as a critical experience stimulates a process of self-reflection and may lead the
experiencer to perceive the ideologies and assumptions coded behind propositions. As
illustrated above, there are many areas still to be developed if we want to see literature as a
healthy practice and save it from oblivion in the EFL classroom. To conclude, I appropriate
12
and adapt Elams words (1980:210). What he has said of the work on the semiotics of drama
can very well apply to the teaching of literature: At the present stage of work, a reassuring
unity of aims and methods can scarcely be said to prevail, and much of the basic groundwork
of establishing agreed objectives and common analytic criteria for purposes of empirical
research remains to be done. In particular, there appears to be little dialogue at present
between [research] and [practice]. The aim of this [talk] has been to sketch out in a very
provisional fashion the territory of a complex enterprise -- but without claiming that this
constitutes, as yet, a comfortably established intellectual field. What emerges is an area of
inquiry whose complexity may be daunting but whose very openness makes it peculiarly
inviting and challenging.
13
References:
BASSNETT, Susan & GRUNDY, Peter (1993) Language Through Literature. London: Longman.
BISONG, Joseph O. (1995) An approach to the teaching and learning of poetry in Nigeria in Principle
and Practice in Applied Linguistics, ed. G. Cook & B. Seidlhoffer, Oxford:O.U.P.
BRUMFIT, Chris J. & CARTER, Ronald A. (1986) Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: O.U.P.
CARTER, Ronald A. (1997) Investigating English Discourse. London & NY: Routledge.
CARTER, Ronald A. (1989) What is stylistics and why can we teach it in different ways? in Reading,
Analyzing and Teaching Literature, ed. M. Short, London & NY: Longman.
CARTER, Ronald & LONG, Michael (1987) The Web of Words. Exploring Literature through Language.
Cambridge: CUP.
CARTER, Ronald & LONG, Michael (1991) Teaching Literature. Essex: Longman.
COLLIE, Joanne & SLATER, Stephen (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.
DERRIDA, Jacques (1992) Acts of Literature. NY & London: Routledge.
DIAS, Patrick & HAYHOE, Michael (1988) Developing Response to Poetry. Milton Keynes: OUP.
DUFF, Alan & MALEY, Alan (1990) Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DURANT, Alan & FABB, Nigel (1990) Literary Studies in Action. London: Routledge
ELAM, Keir (1980) The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London: Methuen.
GIROUX, Henry (1993) Border Crossings. Cultural workers and the politics of education. London & NY:
Routledge.
GOWER, Roger & PEARSON, Margaret (1986) Reading Literature. Essex: Longman.
GRAFF, Gerald (1987) Professing Literature. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
hooks, bell (1994) Eros, eroticism, and the pedagogical process in Between Borders. Pedagogy and the
politics of cultural studies. H.A. Giroux & P. McLaren (eds.) NY & London: Routledge. Pp.
113118.
IZARRA, Laura (1994) Transitando pelas Fronteiras da Narrativa. In Contexturas no 3, SP:APLIESP.
KRAMSCH, Claire (1993) Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LAZAR, Gillian (1993) Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP.
MCRAE, John (1996) Representational language learning: from language awareness to text awareness in
Language, Literature and the Learner. R. Carter & J.McRae (eds.), London: Longman.
MENEZES DE SOUZA, Lynn M. (1997) Wielding the Skeptron. Lecture presented at the XXIX
SENAPULLI, SP.
MONTGOMERY, Martin et alii. (1992) Ways of Reading. Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English
Literature. London & NY: Routledge.
PENNYCOOK, Alasdair (1994) Towards a critical pedagogy for teaching English as a wordly language in
The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London:
Longman. Pp. 295-327.
PHILLIPS, Martin (1989) Microcomputers and the teacing of literature in ELT in Carter, R. et alii (eds.)
Literature and the learner: methodological approaches. Hong Kong: MEP & The British Council, pp.
112-125.
POPE, Rob (1995) Textual Intervention. Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies. London &
NY: Routledge.
PRODROMOU, Luke (1990) English as cultural action. In Currents of Change in English Language
Teaching. R. Rossner & R. Bolitho Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 27-40
RUSCH, Gebhard (1996) Literature, Media and Society: preliminary considerations towards a media
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Associao Portuguesa de Literatura Comparada. Pp. 295-308.
SCHMIDT, Siegfried (1982) Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literature. Hamburg: Buske Verlag.
SCHOLES, Robert (1985) Textual Power. Literary Theory and the Teaching of English. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
SIMPSON, Paul (1997) Language Through Literature. An Introduction. London & NY: Routledge.
TRIBBLE, Chris and JONES, Glyn (1990) Concordances in the classroom. Essex:Longman.
WIDDOWSON, Henri (1992) Practical Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ZYNGIER, Sonia (1994) Introducing Literary Awareness in Language Awareness 3:2, 95-108.
14
PROJETO CLAC
UMA NOVA PROPOSTA DE FORMAO
PROFISSIONAL E CIENTFICA
Relatrio apresentado no I Congresso de Extenso da Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro em 19 de novembro de 1999.
1987-1995
1996-1997
1998-1999
Caractersticas
Intramuros
Intra/extramuros
Financiamento
SR-1
Autofinanciamento
Recursos externos
Nenhum
Gr-Bretanha (doao)
Material de apoio
Escasso
Adequado e em processo
de crescimento
Baixa
Alta
Modalidades
Turmas
20
Motivao
20
137
da Mar. Este acordo visa, a partir do aprendizado de uma nova lngua, contribuir para uma
insero mais qualificada no mercado de trabalho e/ou em cursos universitrios dos jovens
moradores da Mar e ampliar suas possibilidades de acesso a novas referncias culturais.
Objetivos
O CLAC tem como objetivo geral o aumento do intercmbio entre a Universidade e a
Comunidade atravs da formao de professores e de pesquisadores que, afinados com a
realidade do meio em que vivem, atuam para a melhoria do mercado e da produo de
pesquisa.
Entre os objetivos especficos, o CLAC visa:
Com relao viso do CLAC sobre o profissional em formao, busca-se um modelo que
proporcione professores que sejam:
serve como local de pesquisa-ao para alunos monitores iniciarem seus trabalhos de
pesquisa de sala de aula;
Metodologia
Aps passar por testes e entrevistas de avaliao, os alunos so distribudos entre os
orientadores e passam a ter encontros semanais nos quais discutem aspectos da sala de aula
e aprendem sobre como trabalhar em sala de aula e refletir sobre suas aes.
Estas orientaes tm como objetivo:
trabalhar caminhos para que o monitor possa observar, entender e transformar sua sala
de aula de maneira informada
desenvolver parcerias com escolas de idiomas para oferecer possibilidades de emprego aos
monitores aps sua graduao.
O quadro abaixo mostra o crescimento do CLAC desde seu re-incio em 1998:
1998
1999
Sem
Loc.
Alunos
Lngua
Doc.
Mon.
Tecn.-Adm.
Bolsa*
20
371
20
26
53
646
35
46
70
1.297
14
45
48
134
2800
16
72
76
Cdigo:
Sem.: semestre
Loc.- local (Faculdade de Letras, Direito, Colgio de Aplicao, Mar, Escola de
Enfermagem Anna Neri)
T.: nmero de turmas
Lngua: Modalidades de lnguas ministradas
Doc.: Docentes orientadores envolvidos
Mon.: Alunos-monitores envolvidos
Tecn.-Adm.: tcnicos-administrativos envolvidos
Bolsa: bolsas pagas, alm das bolsas de monitoria (laboratrio, extenso, informtica,
orientao).
1998
1999
Sem
Alunos
Lngua
Doc.
Mon.
Tecn.-Adm.
87
71
79
Cabe ressaltar que todo o Projeto Comunidade sustentado pelos recursos arrecadados pelo
CLAC e como no cobrada taxa dos alunos, seu crescimento depende de doaes e do
crescimento do CLAC.
Avaliao
do entender da coordenao do CLAC que todo projeto deve ser avaliado. No caso, a
avaliao mais adequada deveria ser aquela realizada pela comunidade. Para tanto, a cada
semestre distribudo um questionrio populao que se beneficia do CLAC. Eis o
quadro da avaliao:
1998/2
1999/1
No. de questionrios
400
1500
Excelente
50%
80%
Bom
20%
20%
Regular
10%
10%
Ruim
10%
10%
Benefcios bsicos
Dentre os benefcios que o Projeto CLAC vm gerando, podem-se enumerar os seguintes:
Fundao Universitria Jos Bonifcio. I am also grateful to Dr. Colin B. Grant who read and commented on the
manuscript.
studies. By Literary Awareness I mean the process by means of which students perceive the
effects produced through the creative manipulation of language, before they can build
substantiated readings of a text.
II. The silence of the text
In the beginning was the Word ... Was it really? What if it were Silence? After all, we see
silence as reigning absolute. In more contemporary terms, we make silence a dfault. We can
break, disturb, ensure or even fill silence, but we cannot produce it. On the contrary, language is a
construction, energeia, an attempt to change the inertia produced by silence. A concordancing2 of
the word communication will show that it is also used as a good to be commercialized (eg.
achieve X; the price of X), as in communication equipment and inventions. It is amenable to rules,
guidelines, systems. It can be also used as a skill that can be acquired. Energy is spent in the
production of signals in the shape of speech, visual images or any other means whereby
information can be exchanged. We negotiate communication, we exchange words, we compete
for our turn. In sum, communication is something we create and impose over silence.
So, why the effort? The effort to communicate can only be understood as a paradox. To
Martin Buber (1974), humans only take account of existence in what he calls Begegnung, which
has led him to rephrase St. Johns Gospel: In the beginning was the Encounter. Bakhtins
fundamental notion of existence is also set in a dialogue. To Bakhtin (1994), our capacity of taking
consciousness depends on our perception of Otherness. We make meaning on the basis of our tie
with Otherness. Literature, then, like any other verbal and visual manifestation, is an attempt to
establish a relationship.
In spite of the effort, the text remains surrounded by margins of silence which threaten to
take over. The page itself remains initially blank before it is given existence by the participants who
engage in the act of producing meaning. In addition, when the participants in the literary event
select to make sense and establish a relationship, what has not been selected remains as
turbulence, drawing attention towards itself. This is why Luhmann (1994:32) affirms that the
difference between speaking and silence, between communication and non-communication cannot
be dissolved. Every instance of speech reactualizes silence. The paradox remains.
III. The Text as an Effort
2 Source: The Bank of English (311 million words). The use of the word silence is also more frequent that
The realization that the text is not a fact which can be studied in isolation from the
reader has gradually brought the debate about the construction of meaning over to questions of
who this reader might be.
At present, models of readers abound in the critical literature especially after the
more radical sectors (Iser, 1975) removed the author's total responsibility for producing meaning
and placed it partially on the reader's shoulders. Despite the fact that more recent studies have
attempted to restore the balance and consider the role of the author, the text, and the reader as
equally important in the process of reading, descriptions of this third element in the reading triad
keep coming up.
Here I propose a model for a reader who does not seem to have attracted much
attention so far -- the student of Literature. In order to do this, I assume that the literary
experience is an effort of aesthetic communication which answers the pragmatic need of a literary
producer (the writer) who uses a literary medium (Schmidt, 1982) to affect another producer of
meaning (the reader). However, in the wake of producing this kind of communication, pleasure is
derived and the imaginary is exercised.
It is also necessary to point out that readers are responsible for factors other than
textual evidence when it comes to interpretation. Readers rely on their mental schemes and
processing strategies which are culturally bound and textually independent (Cook, 1994). As a
consequence, interpretation becomes context-dependent.
If the assumption that readers have different repertoires is correct, their response
will inevitably vary. Therefore, if a reader belongs to a culture different from the one in which the
text has been produced, elements of variation will be added to the response.
The fact that meaning is variable does not necessarily mean that chaos should take
over. The relevance and the pertinence of an interpretation are guaranteed by textual clues. What
occurs is that different readers will perceive different textual clues and this accounts for a major
strength of the literary text: its polysemy.
Many influential models of readers covering a span of nearly 20 years of study have been
offered (cf. the affective reader of Fish, 1970; later, his interpretive communities, 1980; the
superreader of Riffaterre, 1959; 1978; Ecos model reader, 1981; Isers implied reader
1987; de Beaugrandes nave reader (1985); Sinclairs target reader, 1991). So far, most
models have been abstract concepts Dolezel (1980:181) rightly notes that it has become
customary in recent criticism to transfer responsibility for critical readings to a mysterious,
omnipresent and infinitely flexible ideal reader.
Criticism to many of these models came from Weimann (1975), who argued that
they were not able to answer questions such as: who is behind an abstraction like the reader?
Which segments and class of population and at what stages of economic, social and cultural
history are we referring to?
V. A model for student readers
The model I propose is based on one major premiss: literary critics are readers
but not all readers are literary critics. This statement carries at least three assumptions. First, that
any evaluation or criticism must involve the reading of the text as an initial stage. It is the level and
the context where one begins this initial stage that vary. Secondly, meaning is constructed from the
reader's contact with the text. Reading is a personal experience and responsibility cannot be
transferred. Lastly, evaluative and critical texts are constructs of experiences of one's readings.
Texts are rationally organized so that they can transmit some sort of experience to other
individuals. Hence, any textual interpretation whether evaluative or highly critical must be regarded
only as another reading.
The reason for the confusion between evaluation and criticism derives from the
fact that a literary critic's and a teachers interpretation is a construct which poses as a model3 .
Authority is derived from several sources, five among which may be pointed out:
1. Critics and teachers have more experience in the area and, consequently, start their reading
from a more solid stage.
2. It is expected that part of their job is to organize and control the literary system.
3 Kress & Hodge (1979:115-116) point out the relevance a community may attribute to a critic. They write: "a
society's most prestigious evaluators transmit exemplary operations on a received system of (value-laden)
classifications. This activity is more important than whatever is being classified. The particular poem, painting,
or wine being judged is simply the material which provides the occasion of the judgment and which then
becomes the symbol for a particular ideological message".
To name the model, I shall resort to the metaphor for reading as an event of
projection. In terms of movement, a projection is a dynamic process which implies instability and
change; in terms of space, it moves from one point to another without our leaving the originating
point; in terms of time, it relates together past, present, and future. A projection can only occur in
the present after a series of concepts have already been established; at the same time, it brings into
play future realizations. Both reader and writer are in a constant dialogue with their inner selves to
check how they stand in relation to the world, in an attempt to understand the relevance of their
role in it.
According to this notion, both the acts of writing and reading depend on a
hypothetical participant consisting of a cluster or a set of assumptions established by the text,
which reflect both those assumptions of the author, and their reconstruction by each of the
readers. This virtual cluster is what I call the Projected Reader.
In the act of writing, the writer assumes a certain reader and develops strategies in
the written text that reveal what he or she assumes is relevant to that reader. This is the writers
projected reader. In the act of reading, the reader assumes that the writer has intended a certain
kind of reader, which may or may not match the projection of the writer. The reader is able to
build this projection by perceiving signals in the text, reacting to linguistic patterns, and by
developing strategies to meet those assumptions. The reader then checks how he or she fits into
the picture and adjusts him or herself accordingly. If the misfit is too significant, the reader may feel
discouraged and stop reading. In this case, the reader realizes he or she is not what he or she
thinks is the writers reader. Otherwise, the individual may proceed by comparing his/her
projected image to his/her actual representation of him or herself and work towards a consensus.
The written text mediates the interaction between:
the actual reader and his or her projection
the real writer and his or her projected reader.
This mediation is signalled by linguistic elements chosen by the writer and picked
out by the reader. According to Sinclair (1986), the literary text creates a fictional world which the
readers relate to their own experience through their own imagination. The fact that the text
contains the material necessary for the readers' creation is also supported by Eco (1981:9; see
also Eco's Tannen Lectures in Collini, 1992). For example, when a reader picks up a sonnet by
Shakespeare, he or she rules out the possibility of the poem having been written for children.
From an investigation into the language (play on subordination, choice of lexis, ambiguity, puns,
etc.) the reader will project the ideal reader for that text. If this sonnet is a classroom assignment,
the student will have to work out strategies to meet that projection. This student will then build up
to that projected image.
The Projected Reader cluster is necessarily an abstraction, a virtual reality. Iser
(1975:279) points out the virtual dimension present in the act of reading. Here he discusses the
moment when the text materializes through the "breath of life" imparted by the reader:
The literary text activates our own faculties, enabling us to recreate
the world it presents. The product of this creative activity is what
we might call the virtual dimension of the text, which endows it
with its reality. This virtual dimension is not the text itself, nor is it
the imagination of the reader: it is the coming together of text and
imagination.
In sum, the reader projected by an individual can be revised according to
negotiations the real reader carries out with the text. The Projected Reader cluster results from a
momentary merge of assumed projections by the actual reader and by the writer, as illustrated by
the following diagram:
R
W
T
PR
Prc
FR
SP
= reader
= writer
= text
= Projected Reader
= Projected Reader Cluster
= Frame
= Social Praxis
= projections
- - - - = assumptions
This diagram shows the text in the middle, mediating the interaction with various
actual readers on one side and their projections on the other. Of course giving the text an agency,
as I have been doing thoughout this paper, is a stylistic device, since the text is not ontologically
determined. It is made of signs of language which actualize communicative experiences. In
Schmidts words (forthcoming), they do not refer to non-verbal entities in reality but to our
common sense knowledge of possible reference, i.e., signs refer to a social praxis. The
projections may vary but they cluster within the framework of possibilities provided by the
language of the text. In the next section I will discuss the applicability of this model to an EFLit
situation.
Based on the argument developed so far, the model proposed here
privileges plausibility.
focuses on the reader as an agent.
does not deny the reality of the text as a physical object.
considers the linguistic features of the text.
favours the study of reading strategies.
regards reading literary texts as a structured activity.
takes into account the reader's cultural context.
fosters empirical methods which hold the premise that practice can stimulate and even
precede theoretical understanding.
Starting from the perception of the workings of formal features, students should feel
empowered to interrogate the text. The real challenge for literary educators is not developing
problems for students to solve but promoting an environment in which problems are jointly
created. The focus should be on learning how to interrogate, rather than knowing how to solve.
VII. Conclusion
In this paper, I have attempted to demonstrate the need for a more democratic
and pluralist model of reader which may take into account cultural and linguistic differences. If the
reader is considered as an actively mediating presence and if meaning is here redefined as an
experience, there can be no ideal reader or interpretation. All reading is a social and historical
activity which initiates in the perception of the way language works. As Schmidt (forthcoming)
puts it, ... meaning ... is not mine or yours, but our cultures in you and me. In order to perform
its social function, literary education must allow for the unheard voices in the literature classroom.
Because establishing a dialogue between yourself and your projection is a basic
anthropological need which stimulates the imaginatiom and allows the reader to think, organize,
and understand the world around him/her, if we do not promote it, we will be allowing silence to
take over and depriving our students from the opportunity to develop the epistemological posture
which questions the complex relations established between individual, society, and language.
The rest remains silent.
References:
BAKHTIN, M.M. (1994) The Dialogic Imagination. Ed. M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.
10
RIFFATERRE, M. (1958) "Rponse M. Leo Spitzer: sur la mthode stylistique". Modern Language Notes,
vol. 73, pp. 474-480.
SCHMIDT, S. (1982) Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literature. Hamburg: Buske.
SCHMIDT, S. (forthcoming) A systems -oriented approach to literary studies. A Lumis Monograph.
Mimeo.
SELDEN, R. (1985)(1988) A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Sussex:The Harvester Press.
SINCLAIR, J. McH. (1991) "Shared Knowledge". Paper presented at the Georgetown University Round
Table Conference, April 1991.
SINCLAIR, J. McH. (1986) "Fictional Worlds" in M. Coulthard (ed.) Talking about Text. Discourse
Analysis Monograph no. 13, ELR, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, pp. 43-61.
TOOLAN, M. (1990) The Stylistics of Fiction. A Literary-Linguistics Approach. London & NY: Routledge.
VYGOTSKY, L.S. (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
WALLACE, C. (1992) Critical literacy awareness in the EFL classroom. In N. Fairclough (ed.) Critical
Language Awareness. London & NY: Longman, pp. 59-92.
WEIMANN, R. (1975) Reception Aesthetics and the crisis in Literary History. In Clio V, no. 1, pp. 3-35.
ZYNGIER, S. (1994) Introducing Literary Awareness. In Language Awareness, 3, no. 2, pp. 95-102.
11
Key-words: critical discourse analysis; detective fiction; feminist stylistics; womens studies.
1 Introduction
Many studies in womens detective fiction in the last fifteen years have been tying
developments in the genre to the feminist mast by, as Munt (1994:207) says, "placat[ing] the
feminine and provok[ing] the feminist in all of us". Like Cranny-Francis (1988) or Coward &
Semple (1989), these studies may investigate the position women have occupied in the
patriarchal social organization of the stories, or like Dcur (1989) and Coutinho (1994), they
may try to define the genre. Contemporary detective fiction by women has been classified as a
fusion between two genres: that of the so-called golden age of English detective fiction
which flourished between the two world wars including, for instance, the works of Margery
Allingham, Patricia Wentworth, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie; and the golden age of
the American feminist novel of the 1970s, associated with the production of Marge Piercy,
Marilyn French, Lisa Alther and others. English detective fiction is made above all of
psychologically-orientated intellectual games, stemming from the cerebral characters of the
Agatha Christie tradition. In American crime fiction, action prevails over brainwork, following
the model of the hard-boiled male detectives (see Dcur, 1989). Although comprehensive
and clarifying, most of these works (Coward & Semple, 1989; Cranny-Francis, 1988;
1
Coutinho, 1994, among others) do not look closely at the way linguistic choices in
contemporary dectective fiction written by women help build alternative worlds.
This article contributes to what has now been called discourse stylistics, which
identifies with Burtons definition of radical stylistics, a powerful method for understanding the
ways in which all sorts of realities are constructed through language (1982:201) It also
takes account of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989;1995) in examining the ways in
which these realities are ideologically constructed. More specifically, it examines ten novels by
four contemporary detective fiction women writers who feature women in the role of
detectives or main protagonists (see full list in the reference section). Our intention is to show
how their fiction reflects the changing role of women and their position in todays society
through linguistic structures as much as through content. By creating alternative worlds, it is
argued that these texts disrupt the readers schemata and offer a shift from traditional
constructions of the genre. In so doing, they establish a network of complex and new
relationships and can thus be considered what Cook (1994) calls schema refreshing types of
text (see also Semino, 1995).
We begin by discussing how a critical discourse approach can be illuminating to textual
analysis. Then we determine the kind of genre from which these texts traditionally stem. In
section IV we move on to consider the situational context of family relations and workplace
these texts establish. Section V examines how these relations are manifested, particularly
through characterisation and point of view. Finally, we consider ways in which these novels
not only reflect changes in social structure that challenge stereotypical depictions of the
detective, but also question established conventions of the genre itself.
2 A critical discourse analysis perspective
In tune with a Foucaultian perspective, critical discourse analysis examines how forms
of discourse are constituted and ensured by social systems. In other words, as we read the
world we depend on ideological constructs, or what Fairclough calls assumptions which
directly or indirectly legitimize existing power relations (1989:33). In the case of language,
accounts of the way control has been exerted by patriarchal societies has been given by
feminist linguists (Lakoff, 1975; Cameron, 1985; Mills, 1992). Critics such as Spender (1979)
maintain a deterministic view that this kind of control fosters a male representation of reality.
What we suggest here is that resistance to this control is present in some womens writing and
this reflects the changing role of women in society. By looking at the ways linguistic choices
both hide and reveal the social and political structures inherent in this type of genre, a critical
discourse stylistics approach will have to examine not only the way in which language is used in
a written text, but in so doing, will also take account of the structures and beliefs reflected in
that use.
We are aware that, although theoretically innovative and relevant, critical discourse
analysis has been under attack for not being very rigorous as regards interpretation
(Widdowson, 1995). Therefore, where textual evidence is needed, stylistics will provide the
substantiation critical discourse analysis lacks (Toolan, 1997, forthcoming). Such an approach
implies revealing the social relations and the institutionalised beliefs which affect the language
used by writers of the genre. Our analysis, therefore, points out some of the social structures
which are prominent in these novels before moving on to consider how these are represented
in the novels themselves.
3 The genre
According to Todorov (1971) there are two basic types of detective fiction: the
enigma novel and the roman noir. Flourishing before World War II, the enigma novel had a
classical, geometrical structure, with two separate stories: the one of the crime itself and the
one of the inquest, when the reader/detective learned about the events. One of the structural
characteristics was the fact that the first story was real but absent, whereas the second one
was present, but insignificant. After the War, the roman noir made its appearance. Here, the
two stories became blended, or rather, the first story disappeared and the second one took
over. The narrative then coincided with the action. There were no memories, no point from
which the narrator could look at past events. As a consequence, the detective became
vulnerable, with the reader never knowing whether this detective would survive from the
numerous dangers he or she encountered. In this case, retrospection was replaced by
prospection. As there were no stories to be revealed, the roman noir depended on two
elements: curiosity and suspense, with no room for descriptions or psychological analyses.
The detective began to be depicted as a ruthless professional. Despite their differences, in both
the enigma novel and the roman noir, everything was expected to be explained rationally and
the detectives should follow analytical reasoning, never trusting intuition. This is not to say that
they did not use it. Rather, detective characters like Wexford, Maigret, Dalgleish, all relied on
intuition but not as a substitute for logical argument.
The novels that have informed this study do not fall comfortably into the two basic
types of enigma novel and roman noir. However, Todorov does add the possibility of yet
another genre, an intermediate form between these two, where the main character is at the
same time the detective, suspect, and victim, who must prove his/her innocence to the police
by finding the real criminal, and it is into this third, as yet un-named, category that the ten
novels appear to fall. We can notice, for instance, that rather than being a puzzle-solver, the
detective in these fictions is very much concerned with the psychological effects on the
characters produced by the situations which, according to Coward & Semple helps blur the
usual distinctions between sleuth and victim in order to make powerful points about womens
vulnerability to male violence (1989:41). Indeed, the very category of victim itself shifts
within the novels to refer not only to the dead person, but to others, including the detective,
who suffers the consequences of a murder
An interesting change is that the figure of the detective is not necessarily present in the
fiction we read. In fact, we can set the novels on a continuum. At one end, James, Cross,
and Paretsky create professional or amateur protagonists brought in from outside the world
of the murderer and their victim through the agency of a personal contact to solve the crime.
At the other end, Rendell either features one male detective or none at all, particularly when
writing as Vine. Her four novels under consideration here portray ordinary people; that is,
individuals with no claims to sleuthing who are, through circumstance, left in the position of
being puzzled by events which uncover a murder (or several). Authority in the shape of the law
or the police is rarely involved, and the action takes place almost entirely within the family or
private sphere. As Vine, she resists the creation of a detective and ascribes this role to the
reader, who has to tease out the story of the murder relying on the flashbacks she offers.
These novels take on more of the aspect of a psychological thriller, with the reader fulfilling the
role of the detective. There are no feminists as detectives here, simply explorations of
emotions, sexual or maternal, which lead to murder. What all these novels have in common,
however, is their preoccupation with the inner life and private world of the detective or
protagonist.
These works also present an empathy with victims and suspects together with an
instinctive protectiveness which lead the detectives towards concealing evidence from the
police. In the case of Vine, other characters perform this role as she does not introduce any
detective. It is probably no accident that the murderers all turn out to be men or, in the case of
Rendells The Crocodile Bird, women driven to murder by the suffering they have endured at
the hands of men. The classic myth of an a-political, neutral detective does not feature in these
novels. Instead, Cordelia, Fansler, Warshawski and the Rendell/Vine protagonists are often
suspected of murder themselves. In this sense, they also challenge stereotypical gender images:
women, as well as men, are capable of deceit, violence and murder.
Rather than creating a completely new genre from the start, these novels seem to be
working from within a literary tradition. In fact, they are very clear about about some of their
literary predecessors. Paretskys V.I. Warshawsky asks in Guardian Angel: Who you
really working for, Nancy Drew?(1992: 144) and makes reference to how an incident or
situation would have been dealt with in previous novels. For instance,
If youre looking for Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe doing some fancy intellectual
footwork, forget it.
S. Paretsky, Bitter Medicine (1987: 275)
Although not exclusive to detective fiction by women, what we see here is one set of
textual practices becoming a reference point for another, constituting a dialogue among several
writings. Whilst Paretskys allusions tend to be bound by the genre, those of Cross, James,
Rendell/Vine are much broader, self-consciously evoking other works. The gradual revelation
of the past in Vines A Fatal Inversion and The House of Stairs reminds the reader of
Sophocless King Oedipus whereas House of Stairs is a brillliant variation on Henry Jamess
The Wings of a Dove. In James's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Cordelia, a clear
borrowing from King Lear, finds a quote from Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The
title for The Skull under the Skin is taken from T.S. Eliot's Whispers of Immortality, which
itself refers back to Webster's Jacobean drama. In this novel, Cordelia is hired to protect an
actress, Clarissa (a name which reminds us of Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway) Lisle, who is to play
the lead role in The Duchess of Malfi. Cross's two novels also bring quotations: A Trap for
Fools is prefaced by Kipling's poem If from which a couplet heads each chapter and in The
Players Come Again the quotation is taken from Virginia Woolf's The Waves whilst
references to Sally Seton are made in the narrative. King Solomon's Carpet is prefaced by a
quote from G.K Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. It seems that, rather than
presenting a totally original work, the literary allusions help these writers to place themselves
within the centre of an established and predominantly male tradition, so that they may enter
into a dialogue and challenge the system from within.
Nevertheless, although much contemporary detective fiction written by women
presents females as living in a world traditionally associated with the male domain -- that of
crime and violence -- the writers we studied seem to offer an alternative worldview to the
genre. Instead of a battleground where the detective struggles to maintain status, avoid failure
and to uphold institutionalised concepts of justice, we see the characters involved in a web of
interpersonal connections. They are more concerned with bonds and relationships than with
passing information (Tannen, 1995) or gaining glory through public disclosure of their success.
Observations such as these have led us to ponder whether the writers under focus here are
indeed constructing a different type within the genre. To substantiate these observations, the
following section considers changes in the social structures associated with the family traditionally the domain of the female - and those of the workplace - traditionally the domain of
the male - that have impacted upon the changing role of women.
4 Socio-cultural considerations
4.1 The family
In line with late 20th century scepticism in relation to progress (Lyotard 1979), the ten
novels prefer situations where security, identity and happiness seem to have been given up.
This posture leads to a feeling of inadequacy, impossibility of coping with complexities, and a
deeper awareness of the need to survive. In this sense, more recent detective fiction portrays a
new social, political and cultural organization which reflects the needs, wants and desires of
women from a certain social class -- that of independent, self-sufficient professionals of First
World countries.
Here, hierarchy and traditional patriarchal family structures are undermined. Instead,
connection and intimacy are established with neighbours or friends who become substitutes for
parents, sisters, brothers. Filial duty implodes. These new family-like bonds are an important
element in the narrative, although American and English productions deal with it in different
ways. The English detective novels we studied question traditional family ties by placing the
crimes firmly within the sphere of the family, and it is not always clear precisely who the victim
is: the murdered or the suspect. The actress in The Skull under the Skin is killed by her
adopted son, whilst the son in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is murdered by the man he
believed to be his father. In The Players Come Again, a son kills a father whilst in A
Crocodile Bird a mother murders her lovers and daughter's father.
American writers like Paretsky and Cross prefer to set the crime outside the family
and within political contexts, in their case corruption in modern industry and in politics, but they
also unsettle the traditional family relations by having the detectives establish bonds of intimacy
outside the family circle. In this sense, working from within, contemporary detective fiction by
women opens possibilities for a different social restructuring.
4.2 The workplace and the profession
The very title of P.D. James's first detective novel, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
(1972), begs the question of whether a woman should ever consider being a detective,
professionally or otherwise. The title is framed as a statement, but within the narrative it
appears as a question put to Cordelia several times and it is to this question that the novels
which have informed this study address themselves (see Paretskys featuring of V.I.
Warshawski and Amanda Crosss portrayal of Kate Fansler). In James's two novels, set
against the world of the early 1970's, the response is ambivalent, whilst in Paretsky's novels,
set in the 1990's, the answer is a resounding yes: women are just as suitable as men to be
detectives, but they do it in a different way. Cross's novels, which began in the 70's, suggest
that the question itself misses the point:
"A masterful job, if you don't mind my saying so," the provost said some weeks later.
"But I do mind," Kate said, accepting a glass of scotch after declining sherry. It was late
in the afternoon. "It was a most womanly job; most men couldn't have done it. But if
acting like a man is your highest compliment, then I can only accept it while hoping to
change your terms of reference."
A. Cross, A Trap For Fools (1990: 152)
In the golden age of detective fiction, sleuthing is primarily the province of men.
Where women feature as detectives, they occupy a position of deference, working as helpers
to the male police, always handing the murderer over to them so that they finished the job and
dispensed justice. As Shaw (1992) has pointed out, in a traditional detective story, order is
upset and the criminal threatens to take what is not his (it is usually a he). The detectives role
is to re-establish order after the exposure of the criminal. This means striving for the
maintenance of idealized social relations, including traditional class and gender divisions.
Linguistically, such relations and divisions are maintained by forms of speech and
address chosen along lines of social class. Shady characters and suspects are generally drawn
from the lower class and are more likely to be represented as speaking in a regional dialect.
More law-abiding citizens, including the detective, are more likely to speak standard English,
re-inforcing the link between language and morality. Impersonal distancing narrative techniques
also keep the reader aware of action and events being controlled by a rational writer. By
contrast, the narrative in contemporary women detective fiction does not present events in
such an ordered or rational fashion, nor do the detectives necessarily speak correctly or in a
ladylike or gentlemanly way. Nevertheless, they are themselves aware of the power of
language and exploit the variety of its use to suit their own purposes. We can hear
Warshawski, for instance, say: In fact, you can tell him Ill be sticking to him like his
underwear (Guardian Angel:113), or, Not when you call me babe, you aint (Bitter
Medicine:194). She talks back to the police, enrages them by concealing information or
correcting their grammar and tries to shock people by making outrageous statements. As a
consequence, her verbal violence provokes physical violence against her. In Paretsky, we see
a kind of emancipation in her attempt to avoid stereotypical womans language (Lakoff,
1975). These novels are built more on what Tannen (1995) calls rapport talk. According to
her, for most women the language of conversation is primarily a way of establishing
connections and negotiating relationships whereas for most men, talk is primarily a means to
preserve independence and negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order.
But the changes these novels depict are slow and gradual. Cordelia, who also features
in P.D. Jamess The Skull Beneath the Skin (which pre-dates more recent feminist theory), is
as unsleuthlike a detective character as possible. She resists holding a gun and being physically
aggressive. Almost a young Miss Marple, the 22-year old convent-educated Cordelia takes a
job as a secretary to an ex-police officer, now a private eye, and is made his partner. With his
suicide, she finds herself as owner of the office. Thus, it is circumstance that has led her to this
way of life rather than any degree of choice or control on her part.
By contrast, Paretskys detective V.I. Warshawski (who was originally a lawyer) and
Crosss Kate Fansler (a university professor) deliberately choose to be detectives. Even so,
the jobs offered to all of them never seem too exciting at first, and even if they turn out to be
interesting, they always get into the situations unwillingly, being asked to take on cases rather
through personal contacts and involvements than through official channels. The professional
standing these new women detectives have achieved implies that they do not have to hide their
brains behind a facade of incompetence or resort to accomplices to do their dirty work for
them. As a result, they are more able to hold their own positions both as sleuths and as
women, positions which challenge, rather than accept, conventional ways of doing things and
relating to people.
The changes in social structures that have affected the status of women are evident in
these novels not only in terms of their content but in terms of story-telling as well. One of the
distinctive features of feminine writing and womens narratives in general is that the narrative is
internal, that is, told from the participating characters point of view, rather than external or
outside any participating characters consciousness. The characters are also more concerned
with establishing connections and negotiating than with preserving independence and insuring
status in a hierarchical social order. This tendency becomes clearer in the next section, where
we examine two major narrative elements.
5 Narrative elements
5.1 Characterisation
Unlike more traditional manifestations of detective fiction, the focus in the novels
studied here is not on giving information in small doses to solve the crime but on the relations
established between the characters themselves. As a consequence, private life is as important - if not more, as in the case of Rendell/Vine -- as public role. As readers, we are privy to the
main protagonists uncertainties, anxieties and fears as they move towards solving the riddle of
a crime which, as often as not, remains outside the public, institutionalised sphere of the police
and the legal system. Unlike their more traditional counterparts - Hercules Poirot, Lord Peter
Wimsey and curiously, also Miss Marple, a female detective - who keep their private lives and
thoughts to themselves whilst they solve a puzzle, for Cordelia Gray, Kate Fansler, V.I
Warshawsky and Rendell/Vines protagonists, their private worlds interweave and intersect
with those of the perpetrator of the crime in ways that serve to blur the distinction between the
two, and consequently, the polarisation of right and wrong.
It is interesting that by disclosing feelings and details of the domestic sphere, the
detectives are forced into a constant struggle for individual assertion. For example, Cordelia
keeps showing a letter of reference to the people she interviews, discloses her personal
background and has difficulty separating the public from the private whilst Fansler discusses
her cases with her partner and Rendell's protagonists are themselves personally involved in the
murders. The reader witnesses the detective maturing through experience as she deals with
existential problems. As an alternative to traditional dialogues in detective fiction, the female
private eye in these novels may be ordered around, challenged, or set up. For example, in
Jamess The Skull beneath the Skin, first published in 1972, a worried husband has asked
Cordelia to find out who is responsible for sending his actress wife poison pen letters. When
she asks him what he wants her to do, his reply is specific, going from the mundane to a
potentially impossible demand, each framed in the same way, with the final command issued
as a challenge:
Protect her from nuisance. Take any telephone calls which come for her. Open any
letters. Check the set before the performance if you get the chance. Be on call at night;
thats when shes most nervous. And bring a fresh mind to the question of the messages.
Find out, if you can in just three days, who is responsible.
P.D. James, The Skull beneath the Skin (1992:548)
Cordelias response to these commands is hesitant, full of negatives, and contrasts sharply with
the positive nature of the preceeding requests:
If Im to spend three days with your wife, ought she not to interview me before any
decision is made? Its important that she feels she can trust me. She doesnt know me.
We havent even met.
and perceptions of the characters are marked by verba sentiendi, which Simpson (1993: )
defines as ......... In the following passage, modality is expressed among other elements by the
intense use of adjectives and detailed description rather than logical deduction:
Cordelia was awakened early next morning by the discordant chattering of the birds and
the strong clear light of another fine day. She lay for several minutes stretching herself
within her sleeping-bag, savouring the smell of a country morning, that subtle and
evocative fusion of earth, sweet wet grass and stronger farmyard smell. She washed in the
kitchen as Mark had obviously done, standing in the tin bath from the shed and gasping as
she poured saucepans of cold tap water over her naked body. There was something
about the simple life which disposed one to these austerities. Cordelia thought it unlikely
that, in any circumstances, she would willingly have bathed in cold water in London or so
much relished the smell of the paraffin stove superimposed on the appetizing sizzle of
frying bacon, or the flavour of her first strong mug of tea.
P.D. James An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972: 110)
Here, in a highly domestic scene, Cordelia is not using logical reasoning to make sense of the
setting or to find the murderer, but is enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of a morning in the
country. Instead of the possible choice of the active verb woke up, the preference for a
passive construction represents her in a situation where she is imposed on by other agents. We
have a glimpse of the detective being momentarily off-guard. She does not impose herself on
the scene but rather stands in tune with it.
The characters also inhabit a woman-related world where stereotypically feminine
preoccupations such as make-up, choosing clothes and an obsession with cleaning (or its
opposite, slovenliness, in Warshawskis case), become structural elements of the plot. The old
lipstick in a drawer, having coffee before a meal, or the care implied in a hand-made pullover
in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the rituals of cleansing make-up in The Skull beneath
the Skin, all are used as clues for finding the murderer. Paretsky's Warshawski is very
particular about the kind of clothes and shoes she wears for each occasion, although the
feminine preoccupation with clothes in her case is more connected to being appropriately
dressed for violence:
At nine-thirty I dressed in dark clothes that were easy to move in. Instead of running
shoes, I put on the heavy rubber-soled oxfords I wear for industrial surveillance. I
couldn't run as fast in them, but if I had to kick someone at close quarters, I wanted it to
count.
S.Paretsky Bitter Medicine (1987: 74)
Cordelia may go shopping for dresses and books in between hours of work and when
she bursts out crying, she can still notice the smell of the handkerchief handed to her. These
10
metonymic narrative details stand for the way female private eyes see themselves and their
world. Instead of denying femininity, they work from within an expectation. The following
quote illustrates this posture: "... a feminine room, if femininity implies softness and luxury."
(The Skull beneath the Skin, 1982:549) First, a noun phrase which brings out the readers
traditional schema. Then an if clause, questioning what has been implied.
Paretsky also plays games with the reader. She sets up a stereotype in order to
challenge it. In Guardian Angel, she mentions professions which tradition and statistics would
determine as either male or female, such as composer or secretary, and then subverts
these expectations and surprises the reader by presenting a female composer and a male
secretary.
Because the police and the law they represent are both dominated by masculine
ideology, the woman detective is compelled to dispense what she considers fair. The following
dialogue illustrates this point very clearly. Here, Inspector Dalgliesh is questioning Cordelia:
"Have you thought of consulting a solicitor, Miss Gray?"
"I haven't got a solicitor."
"The Law Society can give you the names of some very reliable and helpful ones. I should
think about it seriously if I were you."
"But I should have to pay him, shouldn't I? Why should I need a solicitor when I'm telling
the truth?"
"It's when people start telling the truth that they most often feel the need of a solicitor."
"But I've always told the truth. Why should I lie?"The rhetorical question was a mistake.
He answered it seriously as if she had really wanted to know.
"Well, it could be to protect yourself -- which I don't think likely -- or to protect someone
else. The motive for that could be love, fear or a sense of justice. I don't think you've
known any of the people in this case long enough to care for them deeply so that rules out
love, and I don't think you would be very easy to frighten. So we're left with justice. A
very dangerous concept, Miss Gray".
P.D.James, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972: 201)
Rather than a conversation between professionals in detection, what we have here is a
situation in which the Superintendent uses language to threaten Cordelia. Dalgliesh initiates and
dominates the dialogue. The passage is characterized by the use of the modal should, leading
to insinuations, veiled accusations and to the conclusion that she is trying to modify the concept
of justice. His initial question implies his belief in her guilt although he does not accuse her
straightforwardly, preferring the use of a general statement (When people...). It is also
interesting to notice that both characters assume that the solicitor who would be able to help
her out would be male by the use of the personal pronoun he. In addition, it is his logic which
prevails in the conversation (I don't think a, I don't think b, so it must be c) but it is the woman
who finally has her way.
11
Twenty years later, Fansler is already able to state her own terms. Gone are the
modals, the justifications (Why should I lie?) of Gray. Instead of the male-dominated speech
above, where the older policeman threatens the younger detective, the relationship established
in the following passage reveals the woman detective in a much more powerful position, as
evidenced by the certainty of Fanslers speech:
The provost said, "What do you want?"
"I'm not pretending it isn't blackmail," Kate said. "I detest pretensions; always have. It's
blackmail."
"I repeat my question," the provost said, not kindly.
"I thought three large scholarships," Kate said. "Generous, you know, covering living
expenses, and what the student would have been able to offer toward her or his family's
support had she or he not gone to college. I was rather hoping for shes, of course, but it
doean't pay to be sexist. They'll be the Arabella Jordan fellowships, of course. I rather
hope they'll come to be called the Arries".
"You'd better settle for one or two," the provost said.
"Three," Kate said. "It's a holy number."
A.Cross, A Trap for Fools (1990: 154)
Rather than threatening, the provost's question to Kate is defensive, an attempt to get out of a
situation in which he is cornered and Fansler makes no attempt to disguise the illegal
motivation of her request. There is no insinuation here, and it is quite clear that she is openly
challenging and subverting male concepts of justice to realise her own in ways which Cordelia
would not have dared. It is she who holds power in the exchange. The provosts gender
cannot be guessed from this bargaining, but the nature of the exchange -- factual, abrupt,
giving nothing away -- leads one to surmise that the provost is a male, as indeed he is.
In the four novels by Rendell/Vine, the blurring of the distinction between the private
life of the victim, the evil at work within it, and the public world of the detective is even more
acute. More like the roman noir than the enigma novel, the main protagonist in these novels is
not an amateur or private detective, but an ordinary person upon whose private life a
murderer impinges, as friend, family or neighbour. Nevertheless, the manipulation of curiosity
and suspense in these novels does not intersect with a ruthless detective. Since the main
protagonist is a private individual who becomes interested in a murder for personal reasons,
the private sphere forms the central location of the novels action. That of the public one
represented by the police and other figures of authority are pushed to the peripheries of the
plot.
In the two novels by Vine, the boundaries of detection are transgressed and pushed
still further, the central character being the London Underground in King Solomons Mines
and a grandmothers diaries in Astas Books. In the first book, the plot centres around the
death of a young woman on the underground and the writing of the undergrounds history by a
young man who is unaware of the murder. In Astas Books, Ann Eastbrooks first person
12
narration is interspersed with extracts from her grandmothers diaries. The narratives thus
weave together two distinct strands that make up the puzzle of the murder.
Despite obvious differences in characterisation and narrative structure between the
novels by Cross, James and Paretsky and those by Rendell/Vine, they are all similar in that the
main protagonists, whether detective by accident or by design, serve to humanize the genre.
Ruthless detectives, ideal heroes, heroines and villains are replaced by more ordinary people,
who suffer anxieties, have fears and are capable of making mistakes. As readers, we are
placed in the position of possessing the same degree of knowledge as the main protagonist of
each novel and move towards the solution of the crime at the same pace, rather than having a
puzzle solved for us by detectives who keep their information as well as their thoughts and
feelings to themselves until the end. Consequently, point of view becomes crucial in locating
the detective or protagonist within a private, rather than a public, sphere.
5.2 Point of view
An investigation into point fo view as expressed in the novels under study has indicated
a shift from traditional uses. Although the psychologically-orientated intellectual games and
action of earlier productions from the Golden Age are still present, the more recent works
demonstrate a move from the participating characters consciousness as it opens out to the
external world towards one in which the observer of events probes deeper and deeper into his
or her consciousness, as illustrated in the following passages:
Passage 1:
Could one face it now? What would those women say to her, to Harriet Vane, who had
taken her First in English and gone to London to write mystery fiction, to live with a man who
was not married to her, and to be tried for his murder amid a roar of notoriety? This was not
the kind of career that Shrewsbury expected of its students.
(Sayers, D.L. Gaudy Night 1964:2)
Passage 2:
It was what had happened inside his head. Or what he thought had happened inside his
head, for those at the hospital who were supposed to know told him the brain scan showed
nothing untoward. He had not fractured his skull. His brain was undamaged. How to explain to
them that he was changed? This quick temper that flared at nothing, that was new. This
irritability. These headaches. Above all, this loss of ambition, drive and -- immeasurably worst
-- his lost music, his lost love of it, need for it.
( Vine, B. King Solomons Carpet 1991:39)
Based on Uspenskys definition of internal and external perspective, Fowler
(1986:135) distinguishes four different types of narration: Type A, or the narration from a
point of view within a characters consciousness; Type B, or the narration from the point of
view of someone who is not a participating character but who has access to the characters
consciousness; Type C, or an external narration with no access to the characters private
13
feelings and opinions; and Type D, or an external narration which stresses the limitations of
authorial knowledge. Simpson (1993) has reviewed and expanded Fowlers classification, but
for the purposes of our analysis, we shall refer to these four basic distinctions. According to
Fowlers classification, both passages would belong to the Type B case. Free indirect
discourse is used and the angle of telling indicates that the narrator has access to the
characters thoughts and feelings. Spatial movement, however, is markedly different. In
Passage 1, the character rephrases her reference to herself first by means of a pronoun, then
to her proper name, followed by a relative clause which introduces more information, locating
the character in relation to her social status. Each rephrasing leads out to a more external
characterization. Passage 2 has a different orientation. The clause what had happened inside
his head is probed deeper and deeper by means of repetition and parallelism, indicating a
move towards different levels of interiority. This shift reveals more concentration and focus
on the detectives or protagonists feelings and private lives and forms a major aspect of the
narrative where previously these have remained hidden or in the background.
Where they are written from the detective's point of view and belong to Type A
group, the narratives we have studied include a great deal of self-reference, which also marks
a difference from conventional stories. As Nash (cited by Simpson, 1993:62) has pointed out,
the narrative in Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels is written in the first person where
descriptions of extreme violence are presented in "a cool, distanced, whimsical style").
Marlowe uses few self-referential first person pronouns and says little about his own private
feelings, although the "feeling of reportage serves to convey Marlowe's character as cynically
humorous, detached, streetwise" is achieved by implication. By contrast, Paretsky's use of first
person narrative is characterised by precisely the opposite to achieve the same effect: selfreferential first person prefacing personal thoughts allow the reader into Warshwaskis private
feelings and personal life. She presents herself and leaves us in no doubt of her cynical humor,
detachment and knowledge of the streets. Even when the third person narrator is used as in
James, Cross or Rendell, or contain more than one narrative, the reader is told a great deal
about the detectives private thoughts and feelings. Thus not only does the reader share their
thoughts and actions, but is also able to judge them.
Whether the novels are written in the first or third person, the woman detective's point
of view prevails in James, Cross and Paretsky. The main narratives move forward linearly
through time, with reference to the past given as characters' thoughts, speech or writing rather
than through use of flashback in the narrative structure itself. This is also the case in the two
Rendell novels, although here there is no official detective; rather, the characters present odd
behaviour and different states of mental corruption and psychosis. In the novels by Vine, we
are moved backwards and forwards across time. Sometimes, the past of dead characters
features prominently, as in Cross's The Players Come Again, Vine's Asta's Books, Grays
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, or even Paretskys Bitter Medicine, where a still-born
baby haunts the detective, pushing her into the investigation. Diaries or novels (or, in the case
of Rendell's A Crocodile Bird, which presents an embedded story-telling) work as narratives
within narratives.
14
As far as the linguistic features of point of view are concerned, these novels are
characterised by avoidance of agency, inversions and delayed referencing. However, more
detailed analysis will be needed before we can assert that this style marks their difference from
traditional male productions and from other genres. In terms of content, what is definitely
characteristic of more recent detective fiction by women is the strong presence of emotional
problems experienced by both men and women. It is this presence taken with these other
aspects of style that marks the difference. For instance, Astas Books identifies itself as: 'a
double detective story, a quest for an identity and a quest for a lost child'. A Demon in my
View is indirectly ironic metafiction, where a psychology student (Anthony Johnson) writes a
thesis entitled Some Aspects of the Psychotic Personality whilst unknowingly sharing a
house with the main character, Arthur Johnson, who is himself a psychopath whose 'problems'
stem from his relationship with his aunt.
Some of these works also shift the focus of the narrative in order to challenge
conventional models of murderers. By combining events and personalities, some writers
present the crime not as the result of observable facts in 'black and white' terms but as a result
of the interaction between complex personalities. As Fansler observes,
Tapping telephones, in the end, might give you information, but it did not give you
understanding. Kate smiled. Thanks be for the unpredictabilities of human nature. It was
not that the likes of Hoover and the British secret service lacked for answers; what they
lacked was the right questions.
A.Cross, The Players Come Again (1992: 15-16).
Female detectives and protagonists in the novels studied here do not simply ask how a
murder happened, as in solving a puzzle, or are preoccupied with action, but also ask why, a
question which takes them into the unspoken realm of emotion, feeling and their impact on
personalities and relationships which, as Fansler so aptly observes, is about understanding
rather than gathering information. In the traditional genre, the act of murder is de-personalized,
or de-humanized. By contrast, the writers of these novels present protagonists who seek to
understand motives which lead to the crime being committed in the first place, a move which
enters into the complex world of human interaction rather than observable, external facts.
7 Conclusion
From lexical choices to discourse organization, the novels studied here disclose the
cultural changes that have been taking place in relation to women in the last thirty years.
Differing from the Miss Marples of the traditional detective world, that is, the moderately welloff gentlewoman who indulges in the hobby of sleuthing and whose rhetoric points outwards
towards their public representation, we have been witnessing the emergence of women as
detective characters who are positive, controlling individuals in their own right, and whose
language strives more for intimacy and for the language of private speaking (Tannen, 1992).
15
We believe that further critical discourse stylistics analyses will give more
substantiation to the point we attempted to make here, i.e., that use of language plays an
important role in enabling writers to question representations of women and the way they
relate in institutions such as the family and the law. In this sense, it will provide more solid basis
to the assertion that their production subverts rather than reinforces patriarchal models.
What our discussion has shown is that some of the characteristics present in
contemporary detective fiction written by women where the detective is a female can be listed
as follows:
Although many of these characteristics may appear in other genres, their realisation in
this context contributes towards a feminist perspective, one in which the writers challenge
institutionally controlled patriarchal systems of justice. It is from within these spheres that the
victim or suspect is often drawn, and against which the protagonist often struggles or, at the
very least, does not to look to for support. Instead, these works focus more upon the
emotional, internal and individual world which ignores these systems and which places its
values on a more private, intuitive world.
Finally we address the title of this article, which is a parody of a parody (P.D. Jamess
reference to Webster and our own reference back to another Jacobean production). One
interpretation is that women should beware of other women, who in the novels in question are
presented in a complex, rather than predictable, relation. But if read it in the sense of "Watch
out! Here they come!", we may perceive that women have moved into the interrogative mode
of questioning traditionally generic fiction like detective stories. In this sense, we are witnessing
the blooming of a new genre, born from the interaction between feminist ideology and the
language in which detective fiction by women is written.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Kenneth Muir, Kathryn Southworth and Paul Simpson, who, from completely different
angles, criticized and enriched this article, which is a revised version of the paper we presented at the 16th
PALA conference in Granada.
16
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Coward, R. & Semple, L. (1989) Tracking down the past: women and detective fiction,
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17
18
exemplares, ou
seja, que visam persuadir atravs de personagens e feitos que servem de exemplos a serem
seguidos ou evitados, sempre relacionados moral de tradio catlica ortodoxa. Neste
trabalho, faz-se uma comparao entre essas narrativas lendrias, apontando os pontos de
contato e de divergncia entre as tradies orais quebequense e sertaneja.
O foco central deste trabalho o carter persuasivo da tradio oral nordestina,
representada pelo gnero cordel, literatura que apesar de impressa guarda caractersticas da
oralidade sua origem , situando-se na interface entre o oral e o escrito. So postas em
relevo as marcantes semelhanas entre a tradio nordestina e a quebequense, ambas
fortemente influenciadas pelo catolicismo.
No item 2 deste trabalho, apresentamos um panorama do universo cordeliano
tradicional, discutindo os valores identitrios comuns a essas narrativas em verso e sua
funo persuasiva de manuteno da hegemonia ideolgica; e no item 3, refletimos sobre os
pontos de contato entre os lendrios do Nordeste brasileiro e do Quebec.
No item 4, tratamos alguns aspectos terico-metodolgicos da Teoria Social do
Discurso, apresentando pressupostos da teoria da ideologia de Van Djik (1997) e das
discusses desenvolvidas por Fairclough (1997, 2001) sobre hegemonia e luta hegemnica.
Tais conceitos so importantes para a compreenso da funo da lenda na manuteno de
ideologias relacionadas a sistemas de valores e crenas em sociedades tradicionais.
folheto de cordel no circula apenas entre os que sabem ler, mas tambm entre os que no
sabem; e estes, s vezes, at em maior nmero." (Brando, 1991:30). Pode-se dizer que o
cordel situa-se, portanto, na interface entre a produo oral e a escrita, ou seja, trata-se de
um gnero hbrido.
O certo a virtude e o errado o pecado, que deve ser evitado a todo custo, pois
acarreta em penas sobrenaturais da a presena quase constante da figura do diabo, que
pune e seduz. Tanto nas lendas nordestinas quanto nas quebequenses, o diabo pode
aparecer como um como um jovem sedutor que desperta a paixo nas moas. Ele ,
contudo, freqentemente identificado pelos ps redondos, pelos chifres e/ou pelo rabo. (cf.
Duarte,2002)
A mais famosa lenda quebequense em que figura o diabo sedutor (le diable beau
danseur) a histria de Rose Latulipe, jovem atraente que danou com o diabo travestido
em belo estrangeiro, durante o perodo da Quaresma. A moa, reza a lenda, foi salva pelo
padre, que expulsou o demnio. Este desapareceu deixando um forte odor de enxofre. Aps
o acontecido, Rose Latulipe foi recolhida em um convento onde morreu cinco anos depois.
Tambm no lendrio nordestino h o diabo danarino. No cordel O co que danou
lambada no maior So Joo do mundo, de Antnio Lucena, o diabo desce Terra para
punir uma jovem sapeca. A descrio da personagem feminina deixa claro que seu
comportamento inadequado a causa da visita do diabo:
Provocou grande alvoroo,
Fez baderna e foi vaiada,
Num rebolado frentico
Em meio rapaziada,
Usava tanga e no saia...
Note-se que a dita mulher no desrespeitou apenas ao padre, mas tambm aos santos
e prpria figura de Jesus. No entanto, como diz o ttulo da obra, ela foi punida por
zombar de Frei Damio, o que sustenta o grande poder do padre.
O castigo que sofreu a adltera impenitente foi ser transformada em cobra: ficou a
triste infiel/a cabea de mulher/e o corpo de cascavel. A sano nesse caso foi explcita e
definitiva, ficando claro aos leitores que a mulher foi condenada ao sofrimento eterno nas
prises do Satans.
Tanto nas lendas do Quebec quanto nas lendas do Nordeste, a figura do diabo
pactuador sempre a do diabo enganado. A mais conhecida lenda quebequense em que
figura o diabo pactuador a do Diabo Construtor, com o qual o homem pactua com o
objetivo de ver pronta uma construo, que pode ser uma ponte ou mesmo uma igreja. Em
troca do servio, o diabo exige a primeira alma que cruzar a ponte ou entrar na igreja. Para
engan-lo, o homem se assegura de fazer com que seja um animal.
H no lendrio nordestino a histria O velho que enganou o diabo, contada em
cordel por Dila Soares. Como nas lendas quebequenses do diabo construtor, tambm na
lenda do Nordeste o diabo logrado. O fato narrado que o diabo apresenta-se a um pobre
lavrador na figura de um jovem negro que diz ao velho sofrer seu pai de uma fraqueza
para a qual sangue humano o remdio. O diabo promete riqueza e felicidade ao lavrador
em troca de um frasco de seu sangue. O que se segue que o velho lavrador reconhece no
jovem a figura do diabo e decide engan-lo:
Disse o velho: eu dou meu sangue
Pra voc seu pai curar
Porm se voc fizer
Tudo quanto eu lhe mandar
A voc eu no iludo
Se no fizer perde tudo
No tem a quem se queixar.
O diabo aceita os termos do acordo e fica acertado que quando no houvesse mais
nada a fazer ele receberia o sangue do homem, bem como sua alma. O velho lavrador
ordena ento ao diabo uma srie de trabalhos uma cerca, um curral, um aude, casas e
jardins. Ao fim do servio o diabo vem reclamar seu direito no pacto, entretanto, o velho
encomenda-lhe ainda um ltimo servio: roar o capim de dentro do cercado.
Ocorre que no meio do cercado, encoberta pelo capim, havia uma cruz sagrada. O
diabo incapaz de roar o capim em volta da cruz, e como o acordo era o servio completo
o diabo vai embora sem levar nada.
Os blasfemadores so outra figura recorrente nos lendrios do Quebec e do
Nordeste Brasileiro. H em ambas as culturas numerosas narrativas de maus cristos que,
pela inobservncia dos princpios religiosos, so punidos pelo diabo, pelo padre ou pelo
poder divino.
Nas lendas quebequenses, o blasfemador impenitente corria o risco de ser um dia
transformado em co negro, surrado pelo diabo, castigado pelo proco ou desaparecer
misteriosamente (Dion, 1999:228). Nas lendas nordestinas, o castigo mais freqentemente
aplicado aos blasfemadores a metamorfose em animais como bode, porco ou, o que
mais comum, co. Em vrias narrativas o castigo divino desencadeado por maldio dos
pais que, representando o passado e os preceitos morais, so sempre bons cristos que
sofrem com o comportamento do filho.
Em A moa que virou cadela, cordel de Antnio Lucena, a me convida a filha para
se confessar na Sexta-Feira da Paixo, ao que a moa responde: quem gosta de confisso/
velha na viuvez/eu gosto de namorado/pra isso j tenho trs...
A me ento adverte filha: cuidado! Deus pode lhe castigar!, mas a moa
continua blasfemando contra os sacramentos da Igreja Catlica, para desespero da me. O
resultado que a jovem acaba transformada em cadela, sano definitiva.
Como se buscou demonstrar, as semelhanas entre as lendas quebequenses e
nordestinas esto sempre relacionadas f catlica. So narrativas exemplares que visam
prevenir os cristos do pecado e do castigo divino, a partir de contra-exemplos e sanes
implcitas ou explcitas.
Em ambos os discursos lendrios a advertncia se faz por meio da ameaa: os maus
cristos correm o risco de serem castigados com penas sobrenaturais. O apelo f visa
reproduo de comportamentos considerados adequados. Com isso, busca-se a manuteno
da hegemonia ideolgica conservadora, refutando toda conduta que a ela se oponha.
4. A
FUNO
SOCIAL
DO
DISCURSO
LENDRIO:
IDEOLOGIA
HEGEMONIA
A Teoria Social do Discurso conceitualiza o sujeito como constitudo e constituinte
dos processos discursivos. Assim, considera-se o lingstico no interior do social,
atentando-se tambm para os aspectos cognitivos e de processamento do discurso, a prtica
discursiva.
Assim, o que se prope com essa teoria um modelo tridimensional de anlise do
discurso, que compreende a anlise da prtica discursiva, do texto e da prtica social.
Entender o uso da linguagem como prtica social implica compreend-la como um modo
de ao historicamente situado, que constitudo socialmente, mas tambm constitutivo
de identidades sociais, relaes sociais e sistemas de conhecimento e crena.
5. CONCLUSO
6. REFERNCIAS BIBLIOGRFICAS
ABREU, Mrcia. Histrias de cordis e folhetos. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 1999.
152p.
BRANDO, Adelino. Crime e castigo no cordel. Rio de Janeiro: Presena, 1990. 115p.
DION, Sylvie. Transgresses e crenas populares: o lendrio do Quebec. In:
BLANGER, Alain (org.). A Amrica Francesa: introduo cultura quebequense.
Rio Grande: Editora da Furg, 1999. 406p.
DUARTE, Kelley. Transmisso, transgresso e identidade cultural. In: Anais do III
Encontro de Ps-Graduao de Pelotas [CD-ROM]. Pelotas: FURG, 2000.
DUARTE, Kelley. Os pactos com o diabo. In: Anais do VI Congresso da Abecan [CDROM]. Porto Alegre: UFRGS, 2002.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Discurso, mudana e hegemonia. In: PEDRO, Emlia. (org.).
Anlise Crtica do Discurso: uma perspectiva sociopoltica e funcional. Lisboa:
Editorial Caminho, 1997. p.77-104.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Discurso e mudana social. Braslia: Editora Universidade de
Braslia, 2001. 316p.
VAN DIJK, Teun. Semntica do discurso e ideologia. In: PEDRO, Emlia (org.). Anlise
Crtica do Discurso: uma perspectiva sociopoltica e funcional. Lisboa: Editorial
Caminho, 1997. p.105-168.
1. INTRODUO
Os folhetos de cordel, tpicos do Nordeste brasileiro, constituem amplo campo de
pesquisa para a Anlise Crtica do Discurso. Trata-se de narrativas em verso com padres
formais fixos e temticas variadas. Apesar de abordarem diversos temas, os folhetos de
cordel tradicional guardam entre si uma caracterstica funcional cuja regularidade
suficiente para que pensemos em um gnero cordel: os folhetos tm evidente inteno
comunicativa de persuadir no sentido de sustentar a hegemonia ideolgica conservadora.
Seria necessrio, contudo, pensar em subgneros do gnero cordel; uma vez que,
entre os folhetos, encontram-se aqueles que alm de persuadir visam tambm distrair,
julgar, acusar, defender, emocionar...
No item 2 deste trabalho, apresentamos um panorama do universo cordeliano
tradicional, discutindo os valores identitrios comuns a essas narrativas em verso e as
caractersticas peculiares de sua prtica discursiva.
No item 3, deixamos algumas reflexes sobre o desafio da definio do gnero
cordel e de seus subgneros, tentando acoplar a teoria de gnero de Swales (1990) a alguns
pressupostos da Teoria Social do Discurso, teoria proposta por Fairclough como modelo de
Anlise Crtica do Discurso. Alm disso, discutimos as transformaes do cordel
tradicional no cordel contemporneo, atentando para as mudanas sociais determinantes
dessas transformaes.
No item 4, apresentamos alguns pressupostos da teoria da ideologia de Van Djik
(1997) e das discusses desenvolvidas por Fairclough (1997, 2001) sobre hegemonia e luta
hegemnica, as quais so utilizadas no estudo de caso apresentado no item 5.
Esse estudo de caso a anlise de um folheto circunstancial de cordel tradicional,
datado de 1978 e de autoria de Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante, autodenominado "trovador
1
popular brasileiro". O folheto, de oito pginas, trata das mudanas de costumes, julgando-as
e refutando-as. Busca, portanto, a manuteno da hegemonia ideolgica conservadora,
definindo as identidades e as relaes sociais atravs de um discurso persuasivo.
A anlise feita a partir do modelo tridimensional de anlise discursiva proposto
por Fairclough (2001), abarcando o texto, a prtica discursiva e a prtica social.
ideais, suas aspiraes tica e esttica (...) faz eco s suas maneiras de ver e pensar
coletivas..."
Outra caracterstica fortemente marcada na literatura de cordel sua oralidade.
Apesar de literatura impressa, o cordel manteve as marcas da literatura oral, tanto em sua
composio quanto em sua transmisso e, por conseguinte, consumo. Segundo Abreu
(1999:74), "a aproximao com as narrativas orais parte das estratgias de criao ou de
adaptao de narrativas visando assimilao dos folhetos por pblicos no completamente
familiarizados com a escrita".
A oralidade sempre foi importante na produo do cordel, pois os poetas
tradicionais escreviam como se estivessem contando histrias; na sua distribuio, pois a
venda dos folhetos nas feiras se fazia a partir da leitura oral de trechos dos poemas,
freqentemente acompanhada de viola, para despertar interesse e curiosidade dos possveis
compradores; e no seu consumo, pois "o folheto de cordel no circula apenas entre os que
sabem ler, mas tambm entre os que no sabem; e estes, s vezes, at em maior nmero."
(Brando, 1991:30). Pode-se dizer que o cordel tradicional situava-se, portanto, na interface
entre a produo oral e a escrita, ou seja, tratava-se de um gnero hbrido.
Por suas caractersticas peculiares, tanto nos textos propriamente ditos, quanto nas
prticas discursiva e social, o cordel constitui um rico elemento de trabalho para os
analistas crticos do discurso, abrindo um leque de oportunidades para anlises variadas. O
cordel tradicional expressa a cosmoviso popular nordestina, e suas marcas ideolgicas e
hegemnicas so um campo aberto pesquisa, assim como sua transformao no chamado
"cordel contemporneo".
qual decorre a argumentao. Assim, tem-se um subgnero cordel jornalstico, que alm de
persuadir tem o objetivo de informar; o subgnero cordel de tradio religiosa, que visa
persuadir no sentido especfico da religiosidade, ou seja, instruir com relao a uma
doutrina; o subgnero cordel humorstico, que visa distrair, provocar o riso; o subgnero
cordel fabuloso, que para persuadir lana mo de elementos fantsticos, com funo
moralizante; o subgnero cordel circunstancial, que persuade no sentido do comportamento
e dos papis sociais, julga, acusa, defende; e assim por diante.
Este estudo no tem a pretenso de definir o gnero cordel e seus subgneros. Esta
tarefa que exige um trabalho extensivo, ainda por fazer. Aqui, deixamos apenas reflexes
sobre esse interessante assunto a explorar no futuro.
Outra reflexo a fazer sobre os subgneros do cordel sua possvel e provvel
hibridizao, ou seja, acreditamos que haja uma interpenetrao entre tais subgneros.
Ainda com relao ao hibridismo, o prprio gnero cordel um gnero hbrido, pois se
relaciona com outros gneros, como o jornalstico, a crnica e a fbula. Segundo Pagano
(2001:88), o hibridismo:
parece surgir da produo textual que, se bem participa de um gnero especfico ou se
vincula a ele, est sempre ativando outros gneros. Embora diferenciados no incio, esses
outros gneros vo aos poucos incorporando-se e misturando-se com o gnero
predominante em primeira instncia.
aspectos paradigmticos do gnero, centrando-se sob uma perspectiva mais funcional que
social.
Para Fairclough (2001), o surgimento de novos gneros como a transformao dos
j existentes est relacionado a mudanas discursivas mais amplas no seio da sociedade. O
autor ressalta, ainda, a necessidade de se refletir sobre gnero no apenas como tipo textual,
mas tambm, e sobretudo, como categoria que envolve processos especficos de produo,
distribuio e consumo.
As transformaes do gnero cordel esto fortemente ligadas s transformaes
sociais. Considerando que o cordel tradicional firmou-se em uma situao social na qual era
importante fonte de informao, cultura e lazer; em um meio especfico o Nordeste
brasileiro , e essencialmente ligado s peculiaridades da cultura local; natural que tenha
sofrido alteraes, uma vez que esse meio j no existe com as caractersticas que tinha.
Suas transformaes esto diretamente relacionadas tambm migrao de
populaes nordestinas ao centro-sul do pas e ao interesse que suscitou no meio
acadmico. Hoje o cordel contemporneo consumido principalmente por estudantes e
pesquisadores, alm de turistas (cf. Luyten,1992:67); produzido em "escala comercial"
por uma grande editora que explora o ramo, a Editora Luzeiro, localizada em So Paulo, e
no apenas pelas pequenas tipogrficas rudimentares do perodo tradicional; produzido
no s por poetas nordestinos de baixa escolaridade como o fora anteriormente , mas
tambm por autores chamados eruditos; distribudo nas grandes cidades, em feiras
freqentadas por migrantes nordestinos e nos bairros perifricos, alm das feiras
tradicionais, como as de Caruaru e Campina Grande, e circula tambm nos modernos meios
de comunicao, como a Internet. Pelo grande interesse que passou a despertar, o cordel j
foi assunto de matrias em importantes jornais e revistas. Se a prtica discursiva mudou,
tambm a temtica outra: hoje predominam os folhetos noticiosos e de crtica social, que
abordam o contexto urbano. Observa-se, portanto, que o cordel foi afetado pelos avanos
tecnolgicos de que somos testemunhas, e perdeu suas caractersticas primitivas de prtica
rudimentar, tendo sido modificada a prtica scio-comunicativa.
A Anlise Crtica do Discurso preocupa-se com a relao dialtica existente entre a
prtica social e o discurso, compreendendo o uso da linguagem como prtica social. Assim,
circunstancial, pois aborda eventos corriqueiros da vida urbana, com o objetivo de julgar
comportamentos. datado de 1978, poca em que o cordel j perdia seu papel tradicional
na vida do homem do Nordeste, como meio de informao, cultura e lazer; pela conquista
desse espao pelos modernos meios de comunicao, como a televiso.
Cumpre notar que no cenrio empobrecido e eminentemente rural do Nordeste
daquela poca, tais meios de comunicao demoraram mais a atingir grandes parcelas da
populao que nos grandes centros urbanos. O nordestino assistia TV em praa pblica,
visto que no possua o equipamento em sua casa. Assim, o cordel perdia seu espao como
meio de informao e lazer coletivo, papel que passou a ser desempenhado tambm pela
TV.
Apesar desse folheto datar do final do perodo tradicional cordeliano, foi ainda
produzido nos moldes tradicionais, ou seja, em pequena tipogrfica localizada no Nordeste.
Contudo, foi produzido j no contexto urbano, pois o poeta, alagoano de nascimento,
produzia seus folhetos em Salvador desde 1945. Tambm o contexto textual urbano: o
poeta aborda cenas da vida urbana, como o transporte coletivo.
O folheto, intitulado As modas escandalosas de hoje em dia, contesta as
transformaes no comportamento social das pessoas. Trata-se de um recurso de
manuteno da hegemonia ideolgica tradicional, ou conservadora, ainda presente no
Nordeste
vsperas
dos
anos
80.
Rodolfo
Coelho
Cavalcante
posiciona-se
tradicionais defendidos pelo autor, entretanto, j perdiam seu carter hegemnico, passando
a ser rompidos pelas novas geraes, o que leva Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante a escrever uma
srie de folhetos circunstanciais de comportamento, dentre os quais selecionamos este, que
transcrevemos a seguir.
As modas escandalosas de hoje em dia
Rodolfo Coelhos Cavalcante
Trovador Popular Brasileiro
No gosto de escrever
Livro de descarao
Porm, me vejo obrigado
Com minha pena na mo
Descrever em voz rimada
Toda moda depravada
Desta nova gerao.
Se moda tambm
Segue do mesmo jeitinho...
Sai de casa com o rapaz
Parecendo at um anjinho,
Mas quando chega no escuro
Com o rapaz no p do muro
O namoro bonitinho.
Revista Sexual
a primeira leitura,
Fantasma, Zorro, Coyote,
a sua literatura...
Assim ele vai crescendo
De todo jeito aprendendo
S a safadeza pura!
A viva antigamente
Tinha mais honestidade
Vestia luto perptuo,
Tinha naturalidade...
Hoje v-se uma viva
Parece o suco da uva
No prazer da mocidade!
O menino antigamente,
No fumava, meu leitor
Hoje v-se uma criana
Parecendo com um doutor
Com o cigarro no bico
Fumando, bancando rico,
Com ar de Governador!
A decncia atualmente,
Pra muitos no vale nada!...
Uma mulher de respeito
Seja solteira ou casada
Se ela no andar nua
Se requebrando na rua...,
Dizem que ela uma errada!
FIM
Assim, pode-se pensar no Ethos nessa amostra discursiva como identificao direta
do eu do poeta como pertencente ao grupo dos conservadores, resistentes s mudanas
comportamentais observadas. H a construo de identidades sociais muito especficas e
antagnicas: a moa que tem juzo e sabe que o amor/no do tipo moderno/da pura
devassido... em oposio moa depravada que anda na rua/com o vestido decotado ou
de vestido curto; o homem respeitado em oposio ao homem sem vergonha. O
poeta define dessa forma os grupos sociais antagnicos: os conservadores, que so
decentes, e os modernos, que so depravados. Assume a que grupo pertence e esclarece
quais as caractersticas determinantes para que se pertena a um ou outro grupo. Orienta o
comportamento social e as relaes sociais que se devem estabelecer.
Os temas abordados no texto so justamente da oposio maniquesta entre o
moderno e o conservador; da famlia, instituio ameaada pelas mudanas de costume,
mas que deve ser preservada por aqueles que primam pela honra; e da religiosidade,
argumento final de que o poeta utiliza-se para dar ao seu discurso um cunho de autoridade
incontestvel:
puro,
inocente,
em
oposio
depravado,
safadeza,
ingratos, pois pertencem nova gerao que segue as modas depravadas. Os filhos so,
portanto, tidos como ingratos, pois rompem com os preceitos pregados por seus pais,
fazendo-os sofrer. Sobre isso, o poeta discorre:
No h outra dor profunda
Do que a dor da ingratido!
Ela penetra na alma,
Dilacera o corao;
Lgrimas por mes jorradas
Pelos filhos, so guardadas
No vaso da punio!
Ai daquele que fizer
Sua prpria me chorar
Cada gota do seu pranto
O filho tem que pagar...
Somente a dor lhe redime
Pois a ingratido um crime
Quem uma me profanar!
alheia/(...) o Delegado lhe aperta/vai se esbarrar na cadeia. e uma jovem sem juzo/que
vive na corrupo/est tirando diploma/da real depravao.../deixar de ser honrada/para
ser uma depravada/amanh por profisso!. Dessa forma, o autor prev um futuro miservel
para os contestadores da ordem social.
Entretanto, os argumentos mais fortes so aqueles que se constroem sobre a f
religiosa. Em amor de descarao/leva ela para o inferno!, o autor emprega a crena
catlica da existncia de punio eterna para os pecadores no inferno na construo de sua
argumentao. Considerando o carter eminentemente religioso do nordestino (cf. item 2),
este um forte argumento de persuaso.
Na estrofe final do poema, Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante volta a utilizar a crena
religiosa como argumento na manuteno da hegemonia ideolgica conservadora:
R-esta dizer aos leitores:
O-mundo presentemente
D-ia a dia se corrompe,
O-abismo est na frente...
L-ivrai-nos Deus; do abismo,
F-ome, peste, cataclismo,
O-lhai o puro, o inocente!
Atravs desse apelo para a f, o poeta deixa implcito que a salvao religiosa est
subordinada a um comportamento conservador, pois na evocao divina fica claro que
sero salvos do abismo somente o puro e o inocente, ou seja, os que seguem os
preceitos dispostos como corretos pelo senso comum conservador.
6. CONCLUSO
O gnero cordel um gnero hbrido, pois , ao mesmo tempo, escrito-para-serfalado e falado-para-ser-escrito. Sua prtica discursiva bastante peculiar graas tambm a
essa sua caracterstica de se situar na interface entre a oralidade e a escrita. Sugerimos que
o gnero cordel deva ser subdividido em subgneros de acordo com a inteno
comunicativa (informar, emocionar, divertir, doutrinar, instruir...) atravs da qual se atinge
a inteno comum aos subgneros, que persuadir.
Os folhetos de cordel tradicional esto, portanto, sempre relacionados a uma
inteno persuasiva, que se constri sobre os valores tradicionais daquela comunidade
discursiva. Outro aspecto do gnero cordel de grande interesse para a Anlise Crtica do
Discurso a transformao do cordel tradicional no cordel contemporneo, a partir das
7. REFERNCIAS BIBLIOGRFICAS
ABREU, M. Histrias de cordis e folhetos. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 1999. 152p.
BRANDO, A. Crime e castigo no cordel. Rio de Janeiro: Presena, 1990. 115p.