THE SPHINX, THE WEB AND THE PLOT: LITERACY AND PATHS OF DEMOCRACY IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The paper analyzes the possibilities of literacy for a civic pedagogy. We rely on the idea
of Education as emancipation, in the context of mass communication, based on Adorno's and
Horhkeimer’s reflections, understanding the importance of culture as an instrument of mediation
between the individual and the world. We adopt the interdisciplinary perspective of Cultural Studies,
specifically Richard Hoggart’s works, through which we consider that consumers / viewers - even when
exposed to mass media which exert cultural and social control through the use of competent discourse
- are not inert, permeable, but able to respond. In this sense, we see the centrality of educational
policies considering literacy as a process that encompasses technical skill and cognitive aspects, inserted
in a social and cultural context involving structures of power and ideology, according to Brian Street.
Thus, literacy, in an educational program for freedomseems to be a possibility to widen Brazilian
democracy, in line with Paulo Freire’s thinking and aiming a civic formation implemented by
participation and discursive inclusion.