As contradições socioespaciais em versos e as rimas do movimento: o poema Morte e Vida Severina como linguagem no ensino de Geografia

Abstract

The use of different languages in Geography teaching has been increasingly recognized as an essential resource to enhance learning, making it more engaging and meaningful for students. This research considers the importance and necessity of a critical, reflective, and interdisciplinary Geography education, supported by the intersection between Literature and Geography. This articulation between these two fields of knowledge enriches students' intellectual formation, enabling a more consistent reading of the world. Following this path of the relevance of literature in School Geography teaching practices, we selected the poem Morte e Vida Severina for study and analysis of the possibilities of its use as a language for teaching Geography. Thus, we raised the following research questions: How can the poem Morte e Vida Severina contribute to Geography teaching/learning regarding the comprehension of socio-spatial contradictions and population movements? How can Literature constitute itself as a language capable of supporting Geography teaching/learning? What learning outcomes can be constructed by literature in Geography teaching practice? What methodological strategies can be used to articulate Literature with Geography in the classroom? In line with these questions, the general objective of this research is to analyze how the poem Morte e Vida Severina supports and enables a geographical interpretation of socio-spatial contradictions as a factor that drives population movements. The specific objectives aim to emphasize the relevance of Literature as a language capable of supporting Geography teaching and research; to discuss the relationship between Geography and Literature for the approach of geographic content in Brazilian high school classrooms; and to develop didactic sequences involving the poem Morte e Vida Severina to aid in the comprehension of socio-spatial contradictions and population movements in Geography classes for a 2nd-year high school group. Considering the research questions and objectives, the study adopts a qualitative approach, based on bibliographic research and document analysis, associated with content analysis and the elaboration of didactic sequences. The poem under analysis narrates Severino’s story: subjected to labor exploitation and misery in the Sertão – the semi-arid region of Brazil – and longing for a better life, he migrates to the city of Recife. The content analysis of the poetic text reveals the class struggle among different social actors, socio-spatial contradictions, and social production relations intrinsic to both rural and urban spaces. Addressed in the light of the conception of space, socio-spatial reproduction as space-class interaction, socio-spatial dialectics, and space as an indissoluble and contradictory unit of objects and actions, the reflections provide support for understanding how conditions of space production/reproduction reaffirm the socio-economic inequalities that drive migratory movements. Thus, based on historical-cultural theory, didactic sequences were developed to address geographic phenomena revealed by the poem at the local, regional/national, and global scales.