A literatura de cordel no ensino de história local: memórias do cangaço no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

This master’s dissertation, introduced to the Stricto Sensu Graduate Program in History Teaching, specifically to the Professional Master’s Degree in History Teaching – (also known as PROFHISTÓRIA in Brazil), is linked to the line of research Historical Knowledge in the School Environment. In this work, the use of Cordel Literature is established as a didactic resource in the classroom in the final years of elementary school (5th to 8th grades or equivalent), in dialogue with the historiographic production on the Brazilian phenomenon of cangaço in the Sertão (hinterland) in Brazilian Northeastern. Regarding the approach to cangaço in the verses of Cordel Literature, which attributes to the people from cangaço the role of regional symbols, the main strategies adopted by Cordel writers that enable the identification and empathy of the Northeasterners with the characters of the cangaço narrated in the leaflets will be punctuated. The objective of this work is to organize the construction of a local history, analyzing the representation of the culture of cangaço in Cordel Literature, bearing in mind the importance of the figure of Jesuíno Brilhante, a person from cangaço, in Rio Grande do Norte lands. Among the growing challenges that are present in the daily lives of teachers of Basic Education, mainly of History teachers of Public Schools, there is the lack of interest of students in the contents studied. This is due to the nonrecognition of these as historical subjects and to the enormous difficulty in relating the discipline of History with the world in which they live. Therefore, Cordel represents a new language for the Teaching of History in that context, presenting cangaço as an allegory of life. Through the narrowing between reader and Cordel Literature, we have the identity elements of the northeastern regionality and its people, contributing to their empathy with the theme of cangaço and their historical understanding.