LITERARY THEORY IN QUESTION: THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE IN DIDACTIC BOOKS

Abstract

This article, at first, resumes and problematizes two of the main discussions raised by the Russian formalists at the beginning of the 20th century (CHKLOVSKI, 1973; EIKHENBAUM, 1973) when they found the bases of the theoretical-methodological study of literature: the concept of “literacy” and the notion of “estrangement”. Redirecting the literary studies undertaken so far, Viktor Chklovski publishes, in 1917, the essay Art as procedure, vehemently censuring the symbolists, who understood art as a consequence of mutable images. Eight years later, Boris Eikhenbaum, in 1925, through the essay The theory of the "formal method", announces a method that would abandon the idea of ”‹”‹literary evolution; gathering the assumptions of the movement. Through these publications, they opposed the impressionist critique of works, defending a systematic and dissociated study of their external elements. After a brief return to the two studies that opposed the principles of literary history, we will seek, through the analysis of textbooks, used by teachers of portuguese of High School, to identify and discuss the reflexes of literary theory in the current literature teaching considering the context of the public and private schools of the Distrito Federal.