Between Chemistry and Institutional Racism: A New Reading Hypothesis of “Lágrima de Preta” by António Gedeão

ENTRE A QUÍMICA E O RACISMO INSTITUCIONAL: UMA NOVA HIPÓTESE DE LEITURA DE “LÁGRIMA DE PRETA”, DE ANTÓNIO GEDEÃO

Abstract

Literature can be analyzed under the author-reader-work triad. In general, Science and Literature interface research focuses on the work. This work, however, focuses on the reader to propose a new reading for the poem “Lágrima de preta” (‘Black Woman’s Tears’, in free translation), used recurrently in discussions about racism in the training of Chemistry teachers. Through the concept of intergenericity, it was identified that the poem has structural similarity with scientific articles, but with gaps in the Introduction and Conclusion. By elucidating these gaps, a model reader was designed and it was understood that the text makes implicit references to the Portuguese context of the Salazar dictatorship. It is concluded that the poem can be read from the perspective of the institutional racism of the Estado Novo, which maintained African colonies during the Cold War. This new hypothesis expands the use of the poem in the training of Chemistry teachers to address issues related to racism.