Enseñanza de la literatura: Perspectivas contemporáneas

Abstract

The primary mission of a doctorate is to unlock the potential for constructing knowledge whose application aims to achieve necessary transformations in society. This simple consideration transcends the narrow perspective that doctoral studies, at least in our country, should be limited to implementing foundational cognitive processes, merely concerned with an impossible quest for updating knowledge in specific disciplinary fields. This pretense of mere cognitive "actualism" embodies an easygoing attitude that settles for comfortable reiteration and permanent consecration of theoretical models and canons, as well as work formats that have no profound or transformative effect on the historical or investigative consciousness of doctoral students, much less a positive extension to the critical spheres of a country's historical reality that desperately needs to be understood from its very core and realities. Our Interinstitutional Doctorate in Education, guided by its daily academic endeavor, demands, above all, the act of thinking about the country, approaching an understanding of its social, political, economic, scientific, aesthetic, and educational problems, and offering possibilities for concrete action that facilitate achieving collective goals and positioning the country in a higher realm of life. In our institutional context, pursuing a doctorate is equivalent to assuming a transformative commitment, an absolute and radically transformative commitment to human existence; if not, we are wasting our time or becoming complicit with those who, due to their historical myopia, have imposed miserable and inhuman living conditions that have led us to be on the list of countries with the greatest social injustice in the world. Either education transforms and expands the consciousness of individuals, or it is merely a distraction that simulates conditions, probably imposed, about the destiny and very meaning of human existence. The concern that effectively prompted us to hold the International Meeting on the Teaching of Literature was that, in this line of academic work, so important in formative processes, elements can be found that will allow us to consider a total transformation of pedagogical practices in literature and, at the same time, enable the opening of horizons that, from poetics, will allow young people and children in schools in the city and the country to discover other possible spaces and temporalities of life. Given the evident crisis in education in Colombia, we believe, as an initial assumption, that through the teaching of literature—as a place for a new existential poetics—paths can be opened to rediscover that human life is much more than mere consumerist vertigo; something much more complex than a simple unconscious existence, entangled in the web of a spirituality-reducing hedonism; something much nobler than the selfish practices of fierce individualism—of indifference to the suffering of others and hackneyed competition that characterize current society. In short, to intuit that human life can unfold in a higher dimension of consciousness, a consciousness not alienated by the traps laid by all the globalizing and homogenizing devices or apparatuses of political and social reality, that is, a consciousness capable of discerning and deciding its own historical destiny. We firmly believe that a poetics of existence is possible through the transformation of pedagogical practices in literature. By overcoming traditional schemes of repeating data, canons, theories, and prejudices held as truths, the weariness, indifference, apathy, and boredom caused by a mechanical activity that in no way touches the pulsating existence of children and young people will undoubtedly be overcome; a graceless and uncharming activity that lost its power when, by force of schematizing the sensible world of poetry, it also removed it from the affections of the child and youth soul and trivialized life itself. It is necessary to rediscover the potential of language, the infinite range of possibilities it contains in its poetic dimension, to approach the contemplation and understanding of what human existence can be at a given moment, such as the one we are currently experiencing. Literature becomes a line of action to rediscover the beauty of simplicity, the greatness of the ordinary, the strength of stillness, the clamor of silence, the value of the small, the minimum of the human soul. In its poetic dimension, literature teaches us the value of the past, the possibilities and clear horizons of the future; the trembling paths of love, the always unsettling tranquility of death, the joy of effort and the struggle to achieve one's dreams. Poiesis, in short, implies a different resurgence of the always pulsating enigma of life and the destiny of humanity on Earth. The essays included in this volume were written by professors and students of the highest academic level, all of them researchers and scholars of the problem of literature as a dimension that enables new perspectives on humanity and life. These are unpublished texts whose publication fills us with satisfaction, as these documents can serve in the endeavor to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education; quality understood as the possibility of understanding the role and place of humanity in its historical and cultural world, and not as mere instrumental training, which is what the so-called "quality of education" has been reduced to today. We are grateful for the fundamental support of the Universidad Distrital and its directives, as well as the unconditional support of the directors of the Doctorate in the Francisco José de Caldas Distrital University Chapter; the professors from the Early Childhood Pedagogy and Spanish Language Projects, and doctoral students; all of whom participated with their magnificent presentations on behalf of the Institution. Also, of course, we appreciate the generous participation of the Doctorate chapter from the National Pedagogical University. Likewise, to Professors Albino Chacón and Steven Bermúdez, from Costa Rica and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, respectively, as well as our undergraduate students; to all of them, for their effort, commitment, and unwavering responsibility. We hope this book serves as a starting point for new reflections, new publications, and indeed, new encounters where dialogue can take place regarding the possibility of constructing systems for understanding reality and knowledge that—from literature—allow us to discover that another world and another University are possible.