Canon and Teaching

Abstract

This article explores the close relationship between literary canon and education, highlighting how Academies, since Antiquity, have been responsible for selecting, fixing, and transmitting texts considered fundamental to culture. It begins by identifying some points of consensus, such as the structuring role of the canon in the study of literature and the influence of figures like Bloom, Eco, Calvino, and Aguiar e Silva. However, it underlines the existing controversy, both in the definition of selection criteria and in the divergences between national and international lists. Next, it delves into the relationship between identity and otherness, arguing that cultural self-knowledge depends on confrontation with the other. This process manifests itself in the artistic, cartographic, and symbolic expressions that shape the image of Europe and, in particular, of Portugal. Through maps, monuments, myths, and literary works, it exemplifies how the nation narrates and imagines itself, from the foundational cycle to the imperial and refoundational periods. Throughout the text, the symbolic construction of Portugal—the place, the hero, and the empire—is revisited through figures such as Afonso Henriques, Camões, Vieira, Pessoa, and Almada Negreiros. Heritage (both tangible and intangible) emerges as an encyclopedia of identity, reflecting dreams, prophecies, myths, and political projects. In the final part, these reflections are related to the teaching of literature, questioning the role of textbooks, the canon, orality, and academic freedom, and advocating for relational and interartistic approaches that allow students to deeply understand the complexity of Brazilian cultural heritage.