Canon o cánones

Abstract

Literary text and literature, as a cultural expression of a community, take a necessary place in the teaching of a second language, understood from the communicative and social point of view. This approach has historically centred the discussion of its teaching around the selection of contents, whose solutions have oscillated between absolute respect for the canon or a use of the literary text with a merely practical purpose (to teach lexicon, grammar, expressions...), devoid of its aesthetic and cultural significance. The aim of this article is to re-evaluate this question, through a review of the methodological transformations that have placed the literary text as a significant learning tool, starting from a processual and task-based approach. Inductive learning, on which it is based, empowers the active role of the learner and enables the conversion of his or her cultural habits and practices into academic skills relevant to his or her training. Alternative canon criteria and models will also be presented. In this case, the use of works belonging to the canon of Galician literature will be based on a specific didactic proposal, based on a broad and plural conception of Hispanic literary references. In order to achieve the intercultural purposes, that it pursues, it will rely on the significance of literary geographies to construct maps, discourses and conceptual imaginaries, relevant to the construction of a solid, broad and diverse cultural competence.

Keywords

• cultural competence
• literature teaching
• task-based approach
• literary geographies
• literary canon