Indigenous literature for children: the challenge of interculturalityabstract
The purpose of this article is to engage in a critical reflection about indigenous children’s literature. To do so, embarks on a theoretical questioning that is guided by the concept of transculturation, as articulate by Canclini (2007), in conjunction with studies on Brazilian children’s and young adult literature, as formulated by Mortatti (2001), Ceccantini (2010) and Martha (2016). As the object of our analysis, we use the texts Paiquerê: o paraíso dos Kaingangs, by Cléo Busatto, and Karú Tarú: o pequeno pajé, by Daniel Munduruku, both published in 2009. This analysis proposes that, in recent indigenous literature, directed to young readers, esthetic options are conditioned by the goal of cultural dissemination, at times, at the expense of the texts’ literary quality. Thus, in the case of the narratives examined by this article, it is necessary to weigh the texts’ ideological engagement. This engagement appears contradictory in that it can reinforce readers’ conceptions of indigenous culture as exotic and stereotyped. This perception contributes very little to a democratic and humanizing intercultural relationship.
Keywords:
indigenous children's literature; Cléo Bussato; Daniel Munduruku; ideological engagement