Pai contra Mae, by Machado de Assis, theoretical-critical study about black people in Brazilian literature: teaching in focus /Pai contra Mae, de Machado de Assis, estudo teorico-critico sobre o negro na literatura brasileira: ensino em foco

One of the greatest challenges in teaching is the development of literary readers. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to plan and apply systematic teaching strategies that are possible in everyday school life. Another challenging issue is the introduction of classic texts that attract the attention of elementary school students. In this regard, the objective of this article is to present to high school literature teachers a reading strategy developed within the scope of Scientific Initiation Research, with the potential to lead students to reflect on the role of black people in contemporary Brazilian society, motivated by canonical literature. To this end, we take as a reference the short story by Machado de Assis, "Father against Mother". The work presents a plot that gives centrality to the situation of black people in Brazilian society and is analyzed through a theoretical-critical approach guided by the perspective of the 21st century, combining studies of Narratology, Aesthetics of Reception and the methodology of Reading Circles, by Rildo Cosson. The strategy developed for reading the story facilitates the student's better understanding of the sociocultural context in the present, the aesthetic resources that generate meaning, motivating them to collectively construct new meanings arising from their experience of the world and as a reader and perceiving the importance of the past in understanding the present.