O cordel em sala de aula


Book Description

Na sociedade letrada de hoje, o sucesso acadêmico, o emprego seguro e a autonomia pessoal refletem-se na proficiência em leitura e escrita. Não por acaso, a leitura e a escrita são as habilidades mais básicas da escolaridade. Assim, todas as crianças que ainda não são capazes de entender o código escrito devem ser ensinadas a ler, pois essa é a responsabilidade essencial da educação. Aprender a ler é reconhecido como a conquista mais importante dos primeiros anos de educação formal. O sucesso dos alunos, em muitas áreas de sua vida, está relacionado à sua capacidade de leitura. No que diz respeito ao papel do professor nesse processo, a propósito, convém destacar que as próprias percepções e crenças dos professores afetam suas instruções, os conhecimentos, as experiências e os objetivos a serem alcançados com os alunos. Nessa perspectiva, embora não exista um método perfeito para ensinar as crianças a ler, em todo o processo de ensino-aprendizagem é importante que professores, formuladores de políticas, pesquisadores e formadores de professores estejam sintonizados com as novas metodologias, para programarem as melhores estratégias para auxiliarem seus alunos a se tornarem leitores eficientes e críticos. Uma questão que motiva esse estudo é a de que o Cordel, enquanto artefato estético e como gênero estreitamente ligado à mentalidade popular, pode contribuir, de maneira relevante, com a ampliação do leque de habilidades a serem trabalhadas com o aluno, visando a formação integral. Assim, além do elemento lúdico, o Cordel pode auxiliar a discutir valores, refletir sobre a identidade cultural nordestina, pensar a respeito dos pontos de contato entre o erudito e o popular, discutir e analisar formas de uso da língua portuguesa nem sempre valorizadas pela escola etc.







Cinematograph of Words


Book Description

This is an extraordinarily imaginative attempt to analyze the relations between literature and technique in Brazil from the 1880’s to the 1920’s. The author suggests that in these relations we can see more clearly the shape of a period that is otherwise usually defined from a literary perspective as “pre-” or “post-” something or other, rather than in terms of its own characteristics. One such characteristic is the intense interaction with the new technologies then arising in Brazil, the beginning of the professionalization of writers, and a revision of the concept of literature, redefined as technique. The author’s chief concern is to determine what is distinctive about the literary production of the period. Rather than focusing on literature’s relations with visual art, with a rising social class, or with the sociopolitical divisions within the educated classes of Brazilian society, the author examines the crônica (a kind of journalistic essay), poetry, and fiction of these decades in terms of their encounter with a burgeoning technological and industrial landscape. This encounter is examined from two perspectives. The first is explicit representation: the portrayal in Brazilian literature of modern artifacts, new means of transformation and communication, and the newborn industries of advertising and commercial publication. The second perspective examines how these close contacts with the technological world came to shape cultural production—that is, not how literature represents technique, but how literary technique changed as it incorporated procedures characteristic of photography, film, and poster art. This transformation was consistent and concurrent with significant changes taking place in the perceptions and sensibilities of the population of major Brazilian cities, a population increasingly attuned to images, the instant, and technology as all-powerful mediators of the urban landscape, time, and a subjectivity constantly under the threat of extinction.




Stars and Stardom in Brazilian Cinema


Book Description

Despite the recent explosion of scholarly interest in “star studies,” Brazilian film has received comparatively little attention. As this volume demonstrates, however, the richness of Brazilian stardom extends well beyond the ubiquitous Carmen Miranda. Among the studies assembled here are fascinating explorations of figures such as Eliane Lage (the star attraction of São Paulo’s Vera Cruz studios), cult horror movie auteur Coffin Joe, and Lázaro Ramos, the most visible Afro-Brazilian actor today. At the same time, contributors interrogate the inner workings of the star system in Brazil, from the pioneering efforts of silent-era actresses to the recent advent of the non-professional movie star.




Errant Modernism


Book Description

DIVExamines photographs, mixed media essays, and experimental literature from two of the most influential modernist avant-garde movements in Latin America, proposing a theory of modernism that addresses the intersection of ethics and aesthetics./div




Bitita's Diary: The Autobiography of Carolina Maria de Jesus


Book Description

Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), nicknamed Bitita, was a destitute black Brazilian woman born in the rural interior who migrated to the industrial city of Sao Paulo. This is her autobiography, which includes details about her experiences of race relations and sexual intimidation.




Making the Medieval Relevant


Book Description

When scholars discuss the medieval past, the temptation is to become immersed there, to deepen our appreciation of the nuances of the medieval sources through debate about their meaning. But the past informs the present in a myriad of ways and medievalists can, and should, use their research to address the concerns and interests of contemporary society. This volume presents a number of carefully commissioned essays that demonstrate the fertility and originality of recent work in Medieval Studies. Above all, they have been selected for relevance. Most contributors are in the earlier stages of their careers and their approaches clearly reflect how interdisciplinary methodologies applied to Medieval Studies have potential repercussions and value far beyond the boundaries of the Middles Ages. These chapters are powerful demonstrations of the value of medieval research to our own times, both in terms of providing answers to some of the specific questions facing humanity today and in terms of much broader considerations. Taken together, the research presented here also provides readers with confidence in the fact that Medieval Studies cannot be neglected without a great loss to the understanding of what it means to be human.




City of Suspects


Book Description

DIVAn analysis of the complex moral interpretations crime was given by Mexico's urban poor and of the evolving institutional responses to crime and punishment in modern Mexico./div




Melodrama and Modernity


Book Description

Surveying the expanding conflict in Europe during one of his famous fireside chats in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt ominously warned that "we know of other methods, new methods of attack. The Trojan horse. The fifth column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery. Spies, saboteurs, and traitors are the actors in this new strategy." Having identified a new type of war -- a shadow war -- being perpetrated by Hitler's Germany, FDR decided to fight fire with fire, authorizing the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to organize and oversee covert operations. Based on an extensive analysis of OSS records, including the vast trove of records released by the CIA in the 1980s and '90s, as well as a new set of interviews with OSS veterans conducted by the author and a team of American scholars from 1995 to 1997, The Shadow War Against Hitler is the full story of America's far-flung secret intelligence apparatus during World War II. In addition to its responsibilities generating, processing, and interpreting intelligence information, the OSS orchestrated all manner of dark operations, including extending feelers to anti-Hitler elements, infiltrating spies and sabotage agents behind enemy lines, and implementing propaganda programs. Planned and directed from Washington, the anti-Hitler campaign was largely conducted in Europe, especially through the OSS's foreign outposts in Bern and London. A fascinating cast of characters made the OSS run: William J. Donovan, one of the most decorated individuals in the American military who became the driving force behind the OSS's genesis; Allen Dulles, the future CIA chief who ran the Bern office, which he called "the big window onto the fascist world"; a veritable pantheon of Ivy League academics who were recruited to work for the intelligence services; and, not least, Roosevelt himself. A major contribution of the book is the story of how FDR employed Hitler's former propaganda chief, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstengl, as a private spy. More than a record of dramatic incidents and daring personalities, this book adds significantly to our understanding of how the United States fought World War II. It demonstrates that the extent, and limitations, of secret intelligence information shaped not only the conduct of the war but also the face of the world that emerged from the shadows.




Justice Without Law?


Book Description

An examination of various types of litigation -- arbitration, mediation, and conciliation.