Literature and Teaching in Portugal

Abstract

Written acculturation is associated with the development of modern society and contemporary society. The teaching of literature gave content and meaning to the learning of mother tongues as a means of acculturation, communication, humanization and as a basis for the formation of nations and for aesthetic creation. In the context of the enlightened transversality and in the context of national singularities fomented with liberalism and romanticism, the ideal of nation became matter of education, giving substance and sense to the school curriculum. In this text, after outlining some theoretical aspects, we seek to base and systematize the main historical-literary and pedagogical lines of the constitution of the literary curriculum in Portugal. We insist on the centrality of literature teaching in school education, namely from the Literary Course of Adolfo Coelho and the status of Os Lusíadas as epic and patriotic and humanist meta-education.