Journal Article

Theory and Pedagogy in the Brazilian Northeast

SADLIER, DARLENE J.

1999

Overview

Bell hooks's Talking Back engaged the class in still broader discussions of theory and pedagogy, and at the same time enabled students to consider the relevance of unexplored feminist perspectives that might be brought to bear on the local situation. One of the reasons hooks was so interesting to my students was that she derives a considerable part of her approach from the work of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. Freire's widely acclaimed book, Pedagogia do Oprimido (1970) (Pedagogy of the Oppressed), is an attempt to formulate a theory that will enable teachers to transform illiterate individuals, who are submerged in a \"culture of silence,\" into participatory or speaking subjects. 7 Throughout her book, hooks tries to do similar work. She affirms her solidarity with the cause of feminist liberation, but she is wary of academics who presume to speak for the \"other\" or who question the validity of the personal testimony: \"It is our responsibility collectively and individually to distinguish between mere speaking that is about self-aggrandizement, exploitation of the exotic `other,' and that coming to voice which is a gesture of resistance, an affirmation of struggle.\" 8 Hooks wants to develop a pedagogy that will reach large numbers of adults outside the university, and her aim is very much in keeping with certain non-academic feminists in Brazil, where the majority of the population is poor and working class. For hooks, the personal is unproblematically political, and \"talking back\" becomes a way for those women who never previously had a public voice in society or within the feminist movement to move from object to subject. Her emphasis on the word \"talking\" revealed to my class that, for certain groups in the United States, literacy is not a given. If change is to occur among these groups, then feminism and feminist theory needs to expand to include oral narratives and multiple theories \"emerging from diverse perspectives in a variety of styles\" (37). The degree to which women's studies in Brazil has transformed the society at large is negligible, because the feminist movement is contained within the university and tends to follow an imported theoretical (white, middle-class) model which is relatively complacent when it comes to issues of race and class. Feminism in the United States has been more successful, if only because of the greater size of the middle-class population; but the era of political engagement, when theoretical books actually provoked a significant percentage of the population toward \"conscientization\" (Freire's conscientiza#231;ao) or, in hooks's words, toward an ability \"to think critically about the self and identity in relation to one's circumstances,\" 9 seems long past. In Brazil, that historical moment has yet to come. Despite her unproblematic view of personal testimonial literature and autobiography, hooks provided my students with a very different look at feminist critique in the United States. For them, hooks's attribution of her own early conscientiza#231;ao and her understanding of the relationship of theory and praxis to the Brazilian Freire was liberatory in and of itself. Perhaps the most profound impact that hooks had on the students, however, was the realization that theory (and not only feminist theory) was not the property of the \"other,\" and that within the boundaries of Brazil was a theoretical source so powerful that it reached out and influenced a prominent scholar in the United States.

• Publisher: Institute for Critical Education, Inc,Center for Critical Education of NY
• Subject: Brazilian culture / Brazilian literature / Colleges & universities / Colonialism / Community Relations / Cultural Capital / Cultural identity / Education / English / Essays / Females / Feminism / Feminist literary criticism / Feminist literary theory / Gender equality / Higher education / Hispanic Americans / Latin American literature / Linguistics / Lispector, Clarice (1920-1977) / Literacy / Literary criticism / Literature / Narratives / Official Languages / Pedagogy / Politics / Romance Languages / Self concept / Seminars / Silence / Social Class / Social classes / Teachers / Teaching / Teaching Methods / Tourism / Translation / Women / Womens Studies / Writers / Writing instruction