THE PORTUGUESE DIASPORA IN THREE CONTEMPORANEOUS LITERATURE NOVELS: POINTS AND COUNTERPOINTS

In O retorno (2011), Dulce Maria Cardoso invite us to know the Rui’s story, a Portuguese Angolan teenager that returned from Angola, together his family. He is compelled to rebuild his life in Continental Portugal, from a precarious and limited financial situation. The scenario was the seventies and the turbulent period of return of more than a half million of Portuguese citizens, during the decolonization of former Portugal overseas territories in Africa. In this paper, we have analyzed the theme of diaspora in the contemporaneous Portuguese Literature, considering as the start point the sociocultural context contained in the book O retorno. Thus, we have established a bridge with two other novels, within a comparative perspective, in order to find similarities or dissimilarities among them, once they address the same theme: Pouca terra...Poucá terra, by Júlia Nery (1984), that brings to the center of the narrative the emigrants story from France, under the approach of a girl called  Leonor, and Livro, by José Luís Peixoto (2012), which has the main focus, among the multiplicity of themes, the emigration scenario from France, and the loving disagreements between two young lovers: Ilídio and Adelaide. The goal is to sketch a viewpoint, clarified by the cultural studies, which conduct us to understand more largely some questions which come by the Dulce Maria Cardoso novel, and also the two other books in question.  They give us the measure of the construction of the contemporaneous Portuguese novel, and reflect the idea of a nation which uses to have a condition of discomfort. This discomfort is proper to who are at the mercy of the diasporic fateful experience, since the most remote past.  

THE PRACTICE OF ORAL PRODUCTION CONCERNING THE CONTINUING EDUCATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY

The scope of the present study is to comprehend the professional identity of a group of English Teachers. The research sought the answer to the following question: How does the mastery of the speaking aspect of the English Language influence teacher’s professional identity? The choice of the topic arose during a continuing education course offered by the authors of the present work, whose partakers were EFL teachers. The research took into consideration both, experiences observed during the continuing education course and relevant data collected with the help of an open questionnaire, which participants answered at the end of the course. Contemporary literature also supported the conclusions concerning teacher’s professional identity and its close relation to two important factors: the way teachers perceive themselves and how others see them. Regarding the English Language Teacher professional identity, the participants of the research stated that professionals from this area are not as valued as they should; in their opinion, the lack of oral fluency of most teachers is a key factor on the existence of a professional misrepresentation. Results have shown that, for them, oral fluency is essential for academic and social recognition of their profession. All participants stressed the need of continuing education in terms of oral practice, due to the lack of opportunity of practicing the English Language daily. They also pointed that teachers with limited-fluency tend to avoid the use of the target language in order to “hide their deficit” on EL; on the other hand, teachers that are fluent in English “feel safer and with self-steam”. We have concluded, from our research, that the oral fluency is indeed important for the constitution of English Language teacher’s professional identity, exerting a positive influence on it. On the other hand, the fact of not being fluent in English Language contributes for the so called “teacher’s professional identity crisis”. 

The study of the English language from the perspective of literacies: manifestations of diversity in higher education

This article aims to reflect on language teaching in academic education in the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at the University of Mato Grosso (Unemat), Campus Colider held in the Practice of English Language Teaching. Search illustrate the approach of the educational reality with the use of technology through the English language, where their theoretical knowledge underlie actual practices in the construction of knowledge necessary for teacher education. The methodological procedures contemplated primarily a literature search, following the presentation of teaching experience of teaching English Language in Higher Education and its reflections that comprised a search field. The practices were entered into the Continuing Extension Project of Graduates and Graduates of the Computer Science Department of the University Campus Valley of Teles Pires (Colider), located in the northern region of Mato Grosso. The interdisciplinary approach encompassing the Practice Teaching and Extension Project was to develop activities that involve observation and reflection of the school reality, aiming at the performance in context, in this case the integration of educational games in the discipline of English Instrumental. The enrolled data indicated that the theoretical and practical knowledge, in view of literacies, new literacies, multiliteracies and critical literacies, enhances the quality of education. Finally, it is possible to signal that this practice, as a curriculum component of a degree course, offered analytical reflections on the educational space, using games as a tool for meaningful learning. This highlights the importance of the relationship between theory and practice in teacher training. Thus, Teaching Practices were a space of transformative praxis that sought to promote autonomy and preparation of critical-reflective teachers who are committed to their professional development.

Pele de jambo, from Raquel Naveira: the belonging in the a pertença na literature for young people

This paper aims, from the work Pele de jambo (1996), of the regionalist writer native from Mato Grosso do Sul Rachel Naveira, to analyze the representations of the Brazil-Paraguay border. Then, the aim is to discuss how  the sense of belonging is evoked (NOLASCO, 2011) in the work. Because it is for the infant and young public, Pele de jambo, beyond the question of the representation of the border, gets more singularity because of the urgency in building, early, feelings of appreciation of the locus in which the subjects are inserted. The regional brands present in Naveira’s work (1996) are extremely important for spreading the culture of this specific locus. In this sense, objective of this work is to analyze how some elements are represented that are being transformed into a border situation, such as history, language, cuisine, and the subjects.

A FORÇA CENTRÍPEDA DA POESIA LIRÍCA

This study investigates the motives and the modes of confluence between lyric prose and prose, in the novel, Húmus, of Raul Germano Brandão, portuguese writer from XX century. The higher the sensibility of the man, more he understands that the mystery of poetry is in the essence of what is said and not in certain shapes. In lyric predominates the feeling, the emotion, the subjectivity, the expression of ‘self’, because the lyric matter is, exactly, the subjective world. The modern man is an anguished being, once he watches the fragmentation of his integrity, namely, his identity is being misplaced. However such anguish cannot be expressed by common words, because they cannot translate all the intensity of human pain. The expression of deep restlessness that oppresses the being demands the presence of the lyric. Insofar makes poetry, the romance text unfold itself as space of experimentation, of varied configurations, of multiple resources, that substitutes the unity of enunciator by the plurality of enouncements and assimilates uncountable proper resources of the poetry making, such as metaphors, symbols, images and allegories, turning the frontiers between poetry and prose fluid. After all, truthfully, it is the language of poetry that makes the literature exists.

VISIONS OF THE WORLD AND THE SELF IN CHILDREN´S LITERATURE: COMMENTS ON THE WORK A BOLSA AMARELA, BY LYGIA BOJUNGA NUNES

Starting by the productive flourishing that children’s literature has been through between the decades of 1960 and 1980, this paper analyses the most inovating aspects of the book A bolsa Amarela (1976), by Lygia Bojunga Nunes. This literary piece is highly relevant because it incorporates an inovating structure combined with an inovating theme. In this sense, aspects such as language, fantasy, the seek for identity and individuality in an oppressive family environment and the constant questioning of family structure are all delineated here. In this way, A Bolsa Amarela is a proof that there are no restrictions concerning the young readers, since it is possible to approach the most intimate and complex feelings of the young people. Besides, this literary piece metaphorically represents Brazil in the 60‘s by focalizing the child’s viewpoint, revealing inumerous situations which constitute real analogies to dictatorship in Brazil, resulting in  thorough criticism to reality.

SPACE CONFIGURATION IN THE CHILDREN'S LITERATURE OF MIA COUTO

The main objective of this research is to analyze the the spatial configuration in the children's literature of Mia Couto. It is intended to show that the space outlined in these books reveals many aspects of the social and human reality of Mozambique. Therefore, the books O gato e o escuro (“The cat and the dark”) and O beijo da palavrinha (“The kiss of the little word”) will be analyzed from the perspective of the space’s studies – a research method that survey the spatial configuration in the literature. The fictional space created by Mia Couto delineates a cultural landscape and reveals the human and ethical values that we need to teatch to children. As the author's work is marked by a keen aesthetic sense, the space of the world soon becomes the space of the language.  

Experiences with an Object-Oriented, Multi-Stage Language

Metaphor is a multi-stage programming language extension to an imperative, object-oriented language in the style of C# or Java. This paper discusses some issues we faced when applying multi-stage language design concepts to an imperative base language and run-time environment. The issues range from dealing with pervasive references and open code to garbage collection and implementing cross-stage persistence.

The Coming of Post-reflexive Society: Commodification and Language in Digital Capitalism

Language is a unique aspect of human communication because it can be used to discuss itself in its own terms. For this reason, human societies potentially have superior capacities of co-ordination, reflexive self-correction, and innovation than other animal, physical or cybernetic systems. However, this analysis also reveals that language is interconnected with the economically and technologically mediated social sphere and hence is vulnerable to abstraction, objectification, reification, and therefore ideology – all of which are antithetical to its reflexive function, whilst paradoxically being a fundamental part of it. In particular, in capitalism, language is increasingly commodified within the social domains created and affected by ubiquitous communication technologies. The advent of the so-called ‘knowledge economy’ implicates exchangeable forms of thought (language) as the fundamental commodities of this emerging system. The historical point at which a ‘knowledge economy’ emerges, then, is the critical point at which thought itself becomes a commodified ‘thing’, and language becomes its “objective” means of exchange. However, the processes by which such commodification and objectification occurs obscures the unique social relations within which these language commodities are produced. The latest economic phase of capitalism – the knowledge economy – and the obfuscating trajectory which accompanies it, we argue, is destroying the reflexive capacity of language particularly through the process of commodification. This can be seen in that the language practices that have emerged in conjunction with digital technologies are increasingly non-reflexive and therefore less capable of self-critical, conscious change.