They (the women) deal the cards

Teaching sequence through the women writers of the New Portuguese Letters

Abstract

The didactic approach “They Write Letters” starts with the work New Portuguese Letters, by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa, and also considers other works by the “three Marias”. The presented proposal is part of a broader project to value women writers, “Discovering Women Writers in Portuguese”, which seeks to promote a more significant presence of texts written by women in curricular documents. The “unusual originality and relevance, from a literary and social point of view” of Novas cartas portuguesas, as Ana Luísa Amaral observes (Barreno et al., 2010, p. XXI), makes this work ideal not only for addressing important concepts in the field of literary education, but also for reflecting on various themes in the field of Citizenship. For the selection of the individual works of each author, we followed the clue of the subtitle of New Portuguese Letters (or how Maina Mendes put both hands on her body and kicked the ass of the other legitimate superiors). In a rather ingenious way, the main theme of the Novas cartas portuguesass is presented, linking the titles: Maina Mendes, by Maria Velho da Costa, Ambas as mãos sobre o corpo by Maria Teresa Horta, and Os outros legítimos superiores, by Maria Isabel Barreno. The activities that make up this didactic path, despite the evident connections, are autonomous, easily allowing for spacing throughout the year and articulation with Reading and Citizenship and Development projects. The choice to analyze excerpts rather than entire works is justified for two reasons: the first is related to the complexity of the novels in question, catering to the age range of the high school students to whom the proposals are directed, and the second to the difficulty in integrating complete works into already full school curricula.