Black literature in the English language classroom: teaching English and building the individual as a critical and sensitive social being with the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

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Abstract: For some time in traditional foreign language teaching, literature occupied the place of teaching object used in the translation method.With the changes in teaching methodology, the literary text has lost its importance in English classrooms.However, literature is resurging and asking for space in this context in conformity with the off icial documents of education that attribute to the teaching of foreign languages the development of knowledge for the exercise of citizenship.This research aims to analyze the use of literary texts in the English language classroom that through this literacy process facilitates the construction of the student's formative character, collaborating in the reflection about his social practices and actions as a critical and sensitive individual.The short story "Girl" by the black writer Jamaica Kincaid is presented as an alternative object of study, bringing attention to relevant discussions of post-modernity, such as the colonization process, which is responsible for a great part of the identity formation of several peoples.Based on the assumptions of literature as a "humanizing" text (CANDIDO, 2012), transgressive (COSSON, 2016;HOOKS, 2017), and transformative (GONÇALVES; SPECHT, 2018)

Introduction
Language "is a human and social product that organizes and exposes common experiences of a given linguistic community 1 " (ARAÚJO; DIAS; LOPES, 2017, p. 1).According to Bagno "language is alive, dynamic, and constantly evolving 2 " (2007, p. 107).It is in social practice that language is conf igured and transformed according to the changes in society, human beings, and culture.We represent culture through language (HALL, 2016)."We make sense of things by the way we use them or integrate them into our daily practices 3 " (HALL, 2016, p. 21).
Teaching a foreign language as a second language goes far beyond the transmission of codes, vocabulary, and grammar.In English language teaching, besides the need to develop the four skills described in off icial documents as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, the BNCC (Base Nacional Comum Curricular) states that it is important to develop the individual to exercise their citizenship in a conscious and critical way: Learning the English language enables students to create new forms of engagement and participation in an increasingly globalized and plural social world, where the 1 Our translation: "é um produto humano e social que organiza e expõe experiências comuns de determinada comunidade linguística" (p. 1).
boundaries between countries and personal, local, regional, national and transnational interests are increasingly blurred and contradictory.Thus, the study of the English language can give everyone access to the linguistic knowledge necessary for engagement and participation, contributing to the students' critical agency and to the exercise of active citizenship, besides expanding the possibilities of interaction and mobility, opening new paths of knowledge construction and continuity in studies.At the expense of some studies point out "that the insertion of the literary genre within the English language classroom is still troubled 5 " because "neglected in the daily life of modern society, art takes a back seat 6 " (GONÇALVEZ; SPECHT, 2018, p. 16), this research inspires English teachers to bring black literature into the classroom, seeking the cultural richness of this art for language learning.
Black literature has gone through several obstacles to conquer space in cultural production and have its works recognized as of artistic and intellectual value.Black writers used writing "as a political act" (KILOMBA, 2010, p. 12) and of resistance giving voice to a people that for a long period was "coerced to illiteracy 7 " (GILROY, 2001, p. 244).
Among the English language literary publications is black author Jamaica Kincaid who has her roots in one of England's former colonies, the Caribbean Island country Antigua.The author's texts are woven into the marks of colonialism addressing issues of race, gender, and other wounds inherited f rom slavery.
Urgent and necessary themes bring into focus the voice of subalternate groups.It is in this proposal that the short story "Girl" is presented as a suggestion for a literary text to be worked on in English classes.
The article shows how the introduction of literature in English language learning helps to build a more critical human being, concerned with everyone's social well-being, reinforcing 5 Our translation: "que ainda é conturbada a inserção do gênero literário dentro da sala de aula de língua inglesa" (p.16) 6 Our translation: "negligenciada no cotidiano da sociedade moderna, a arte ocupa um segundo plano" (p.16). 7 Our translation: "coagidos ao analfabetismo".
the sense of community and otherness, and respecting cultural differences.It is based on this pathway with some theoretical perspectives that the research is developed seeking to bring black authors and the implications of black authorship, presenting the short story "Girl" as a humanizing transgressor text and relating literature in English language teaching with the power of transformation that a literary text can have.

Methodology
The analysis was carried out with a literature review of recent research on the use of literary texts for English language teaching, with the BNCC and with theorists such as Antonio Candido, Rildo Cosson, Stuart Hall, Bell Hooks, Joanne Collie and Stephen Slater, Gillian Lazar, among others.The short story "Girl" by the author Jamaica Kincaid was related to aspects developed in the literacy process with this literary text in English language classes.
For exposing issues related to black literature published in the English language, other authors dialogue in the discussions presented in the article such as Grada Kilomba with his work " Plantation Memories" and Paul Gilroy with his book "Black Atlantic".To guide us on the Brazilian black literary production and its main characteristics Cuti arises with "Literatura Negro-Brasileira".

Jamaica Kincaid and Black authors
The writer Jamaica Kincaid with her given name of Elaine Potter Richardson, was born in Antigua in the capital Saint John's and moved to the United States at the age of seventeen in 1973.
She becomes a f reelance writer in 1973 changing her name to Jamaica Kincaid and takes up a column in the New Yorker magazine in 1976 (SILVA, 2012).About the country Antigua: Located to the east of Central America, in the Caribbean Sea, the island of Antigua is the largest and most important in relation to the other two (Redonda and Barbuda) that form the country.It was colonized by the British and only became independent in 1981; having more than 90% of the population formed by Af ro-Caribbeans its main activity is tourism, which employs at least 50% of the people, the other part lives mainly f rom agriculture and livestock 8 (SILVA, 2012, p. 1).
Kincaid's texts are related to issues of race, gender, colonialism, and its consequences (SILVA, 2012).These are themes addressed by black writers and are related to the formation of their identities.These are historical facts that cross f rom the past to the present, as it is the answer to numerous social problems of today.Countries that inherited slavery recognize themselves in the same pain: Black Atlantic cultures have created vehicles of consolation through the mediation of suffering.They specify aesthetic and counter-aesthetic forms and a distinct dramaturgy of remembrance that characteristically separated genealogy f rom geography, and the act of coping f rom that of belonging 9 (GILROY, 2011, p. 13).

The short story "Girl" as a humanizing transgressive text
To Antonio Candido, literature is related to a human right and comprises "all creations of poetic, f ictional or dramatic touch, at all levels of society, in all types of culture, f rom what we call folklore, legend, to the most complex and diff icult forms of production 12 " (2012, p. 7).It is linked to the fabulation that is inherent to every man, illiterate or erudite, and independent of the will like the dream during sleep.The universe of fabrication "manifests itself f rom the amorous or economic reverie on the bus to the attention f ixed on the television soap opera or in the followed reading of a novel 13 " (CANDIDO, 2012, p. 7).Satisfying this need constitutes a right that Candido argues is perhaps necessary for social and psychic equilibrium (CANDIDO, 2012).Cuti (2010) describes that "literature is power, the power to convince, to feed the imaginary, an inspiring source of thought 10 Our translation: "vem crescendo nos últimos anos e tem-se observado esse movimento seguindo movimentos feministas e antirracistas" (p.187). 11 Our translation: "um caminho aberto para reconhecer a si mesmo, por meio da purgação da histórica humilhação sof rida e do expurgo de seus fantasmas criados pela discriminação racial" (p.75).
12 Our translation: "todas as criações de toque poético, f iccional ou dramático, em todos os níveis de sociedade, em todos os tipos de cultura, desde o que chamamos de folclore, lenda, até as formas mais complexas e dif íceis de produção" (p. 7). 13 Our translation: "manifesta desde o devaneio amoroso ou econômico no ônibus até a atenção f ixada na novela de televisão ou na leitura seguida de um romance" (p. 7).Reading is learning what and how we are, in all our humanity, with our actions, our dreams and our ghosts, both in the public space and in the privacy of our consciousness.This knowledge is found only in literature.Not even the other branches of the human sciencesphilosophy, history or the arts -have managed to preserve this integrative vision in an accessible discourse, for they too have succumbed to the dominance of specialization.
The f raternal bond that literature establishes between human beings transcends all temporal barriers.The sense of being part of the collective experience across time and space is culture's greatest achievement, and nothing contributes more to renewing it with each generation than literature 17 .(LLOSA,2010, p. 62).
Given the arguments for the importance of literature in man's life, one has the incentive for English language teachers to use literary texts in the classroom.The transforming power of literary texts is extraordinary and proposes beyond all knowledge, hope, a certain power of change.
The mother's advice takes up the entire tale with only two sentences spoken by the daughter, who listens to her mother in silence throughout the text.
[…] is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat f ruits on the street-flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button […] (KINCAID, 2012, p. 125).
The daughter in the place of the one who suffers oppression and does not react.The mother is the one who reproduces a sexist discourse.The story dialogues and questions the condition of women in society, bringing into focus "correct forms" of behavior for a young woman that are perhaps part of the writer's memory and are still part of the memory and reality of many women.In a certain passage, the mother uses an offensive form to refer to her daughter's behavior.Kincaid makes her black female voice a cry to denounce gender violence.According to Kilomba cited by Cunha and Martins (2020) discussions between race and gender are inseparable."Gender impacts the construction of 'race' and the experience of racism" (KILOMBA, 2010, p. 94).
Jamaica Kincaid is a black woman who writes literature.
According to Cuti (2010) in Brazil it was in the last decades of the 20th century that black writers gained prominence.The author in the position of "black-authored body-writing is crossed by other oceans of unspoken words, by other islands of power 20 " (CUNHA; MARTINS, 2020, p. 76) that only the black body experiences.
"Florentina (2018) tells us that the literature produced by black women can be read as a result of these women's historical reaction to epistemicide, silencing, and structured machismo 21 " (CUNHA: MARTINS, 2020, p. 74).
Rildo Cosson (2016, p. 17 Transgress (2017) recognizes that "education as a practice of f reedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn 23 " (p.25).The author believes that the teacher's job "is not to simply share information, but to participate in the intellectual and spiritual growth 24 " of students (HOOKS, 2017, p. 25).And thus, "inspiring values such as sensitivity, solidarity, respect, and unity, which are fundamental to life in society 25 " (BERTONHA, 2021, p. 20).

Literature in English language teaching
A literary text is very effective in contributing to the English language teaching process and several researchers are 21 Our translation: "Florentina ( 2018) nos diz que a literatura produzida por mulheres negras pode ser lida como resultado da reação histórica dessas mulheres ao epistemicídio, ao silenciamento e ao machismo estruturado" (p.74).

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Our translation: "não é o de simplesmente partilhar informação, mas sim o de participar do crescimento intelectual e espiritual" (p.25).It is a fact that "by resisting its own historicity and exploring a language that appeals to the subject's greatest subjectivities, the potential for critical formation by literature 27 " is real.If using the aesthetic experience "the literary text builds and develops a unique language 28 " (GONÇALVES; SPECHT, 2018, p. 3), "a contact link between the linguistic and the cultural 29 " (ARAÚJO; DIAS; LOPES, 2017, p. 2).
According to Gonçalves and Specht (2018, p. 7), "dwells in the intricate nature of literature its ability to create in us, new lenses for perception of the world -if it were 'simpler', perhaps it would not be so transformative 30 ".The authors acknowledge the diff iculties of inserting literary texts into the classroom, but attribute this due to their complexity and "trajectory for vocabular and intellectual growth 31 " (2018.p. 7).It is in this process of reading 26 Our translation: "as emoções humanas, tornando o aluno mais sensível aos problemas do mundo, mais atento a outras realidades" (p.271).
In the view of Collie and Slater (1987) the literary text in the classroom "was sometimes tarred with an 'elitist' brush and reserved for the most advanced level of study" (p.4) for the reason that "for an arsenal of critical terms, the 'metalanguage' of literary studies, convinced many teachers that it could not be studied satisfactorily in the foreign language" (p.4-5).The authors' work "Literature in Language Classroom" encourages teachers to use literature at all levels down to the lowest, since […] literature, which speaks to the heart as much as to the mind, provides material with some emotional colour, that can make fuller contact with the learner's own life, and can thus counterbalance the more f ragmented effect of many collections of texts used in the classroom.(COLLIE;SLATER, 1987, p. 5).
The book provides "ideas, approaches and techniques" (p. 5) that have worked well in classrooms, describes the benef its of literature in language teaching and cites appropriate ways to work with these texts each a different technique for novels, poems and short stories (COLLIE; SLATER, 1987).
According to these authors, literature is benef icial in the language learning process because it is valuable authentic material, is cultural and language enrichment and it makes a personal involvement.Literary texts are "written material which is 'important' in the sense that it says something about fundamental human issues, and which is enduring rather than 32 Our translation: e o enriquecimento cultural amplo" (p. 6).
ephemeral".It is in reading these texts in which the language is intended for native speakers that the students "gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument, narration, and so on" (COLLIE; SLATER, 1987, p. 6).
Being in direct actual contact with native speakers for many students is not always possible, but other ways of understanding can be adopted "so that they gain an understanding of the way of life of the country: radio  , 2009, p. 17).Lazar describes that (2009, p. 17) "literature is a particularly good source for developing students' abilities to infer meaning and to make interpretations" and that there are multiple meanings to be understood that are usually not explicit.
There is an emotional involvement in the development of a story, the reader is eager to know what happens as the text unfolds, "he or she feels close to certain characters and shares their emotional responses.The language becomes 'transparent'the f iction summons the whole person into its own world" (COLLIE; SLATER, 1987, p. 7).
In choosing the texts to be read and studied in class is "important to choose books, therefore, which are relevant to the life experiences, emotions, or dreams of the learner" and the ideal is to use "a work that is not too much above the students' normal reading prof iciency" (COLLIE; SLATER, 1987, p. 8).By analyzing and taking into consideration the prof iciency level and age of the students, it is possible to use literary texts in English language classes f rom children to adults, seeking strategies to "insert it since early childhood education 34 " (MATOS; VASCONCELOS, 2018, p. 4).
There are some obstacles when using literary texts in language teaching.In the view of Collie and Slater (1987, p. 9): Often the sheer diff iculties of detailed comprehension posed by the intricacy or linguistic subtlety of the language turn the teaching of literature into a massive process of explanation by the teacher or even of translation, with the greater proportion of available classroom time devoted to a step by step exegetical exercise led by the teacher.
It is indicated to work the literary texts in a more relaxed way and without being used "as an evaluative requirement, but as 34 Our translation: "inseri-la desde a educação infantil" (p.4) a delightful reading, of discoveries and inspirations 35 " and "a teacher, who has the habit of reading, has an easy time persuading students to carry out the reading of some texts or literary works 36 " (MATOS; VASCONCELOS, 2018, p. 2).Rita Baleiro reports that students tend to give up because they f ind literary texts diff icult to read, and this dilemma can be solved by encouraging students toward these types of texts, "the continuous reading experience will surely help students become less intimidated and more familiar with literature" (2010, p. 4-5).
A suggestion to make reading more attractive is "reading a series of passages f rom different works produces more variety in the classroom, so that the teacher has a greater chance of avoiding monotony" (COLLIE; SLATER, 1987, p. 11).By using f ragments of works there is the possibility of maintaining greater attention on the part of students "instead of very long and boring works, the teacher can adapt the literary approach by using paradidactic or simplif ied versions of the texts, also resources such as summaries, biographies of authors, f ilms based on literary works 37 " (ARAÚJO; DIAS; LOPES, 2017, p. 6).

Conclusion
The teaching of English as a foreign language has undergone several changes in its methodologies and currently, a number of researchers recognize the benef its of working with 35 Our translation: "como requisito avaliativo, mas como uma leitura de deleite, de descobertas e de inspirações" (p.2).
literary texts in the classroom.Different authors have written about the learning that occurs in this literacy process that goes beyond linguistic knowledge.Bringing black authors into the classroom, especially black women authors is a way to teach by humanizing, transgressing, and transforming.
It is in the way the teacher works with literary texts and in the proposal that these classes have that the students' production of knowledge is drawn.Language learning becomes meaningful when there is a construction of meaning, and literature offers this.
It has a "personality-forming role 38 " and " great is the humanizing power 39 " of literary works.(CANDIDO, 2012 p.8). "Nothing protects us better f rom the stupidity of prejudice, racism, xenophobia, religious or political sectarianism 40 " than literature (LLOSA, 2010, p.

61).
Kincaid's short story "Girl" is related to issues of racism, gender, and the process of colonialism and represents other black women writers who echo one voice.Black women authors are currently f ighting for a space in literature and are part of the feminist and anti-racist movements.The text questions the condition of women in society, the silence of those who suffer oppression, relevant topics for discussion and cultural enrichment, which enables students to rethink about themselves and their relationship with others.
Approaching authors f rom countries other than North America or the United Kingdom is to bring to students' attention the expansion of the English language that occurred through the 38 Our translation: "papel formador da personalidade" (p.8).
colonies and to bring to light the consequences generated by this process of colonialism.Cuti (2010) relates that the pain inherited by black people is denounced by art, reinforcing their racial identity.
It is signif icant that learning a foreign language is connected to understanding the "place of other cultures in the world, in a deeper way, understanding the oppressions that permeate their cultures and the cultures 41 " of other languages.It is in the practice of developing criticality that teachers will form individuals concerned with essential aspects of life such as the "exercise of reflection, the acquisition of knowledge, […], the tuning of emotions, the ability to penetrate the problems of life, a sense of beauty, the perception of the complexity of the world and beings 42 " (CANDIDO, 2012 p. 13), and the cultivation of love.
) idealizes a transgressive work with literature in which "a proposal of critical literary literacy can provide the (re) construction of the world and of standardized discourses of the so-called literate society, giving rise to a new making of idiom and language, proper to each subject 22 ".Defender of Paulo Freire, Bell Hooks in her book Teaching to

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Our translation: "inspirando valores como a sensibilidade, a solidariedade, o respeito e a união, fundamentais para a vida em sociedade" (p.20).unanimous about that (LAGO; LIMA, 2013).The benef its of literature in the classroom cover both the dimension of linguistic learning, such as vocabulary and syntactic constructions and the social and individual dimension by reviving "human emotions, making the student more sensitive to the world's problems, more aware of other realities 26 "(SIVASUBRAMANIAM, 2004 apud LAGO;   LIMA, 2013, p. 271).
and action 14 " (p.12).One can thus see the relationship that the imaginary has for an action to occur and what literature can Kincaid published At the Bottom of The River in (1999) e Mr. Potter.Her texts "take the reader back to a context of colonial servitude history, in which her formation process in Antigua took place 18 "(RAMOS, 2007, p. 121)and "conf irm the emphasis on writing and rewriting events taken f rom her own experience 19 "(AZEVEDO, 2008, p. 94).The short story is written in a single paragraph in which the mother tells her daughter how she should behave and do the chores that a girl should do."Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk bare-