Drummond and the “literary novitiate”

Abstract

Drummond, in a poem called “Iniciação literária”, from his book “Boitempo II”, uses the image of the ship and remembers his readings as a desire of going away. This movement appears many times in his works, especially when he recalls his childhood’s library. But our question here is: what is Drummond’s works destiny in Brazilian schools nowadays? Literature teaching policies, especially for high school, are based in historiographic guidelines that advocates the history of national literature instead of reading literature itself. Drummond is one of the most important poets of Brazilian modern literature, has a statue in Copacabana, was a public agent and is a representative icon of the nation; but which Drummond do we know in school? Who is Drummond in high school textbooks, and does he determine the students’ repertoire? In which way his selected works are read, since textbooks also choose ways to read and validate readings? This essay aims to analyze the approach to Drummond’s writings in high school textbooks selected by the Programa Nacional do Livro e do Material Didático (PNLD) for the next three years, discussing the survival of the image of a national poet.