Literature in the Brazilian high school: history, norms and experience in the school

abstract Contemporary Brazil is experiencing teaching reforms at all levels: elimination of disciplines, changes in teaching load as well as by the creation of educational programs (for instance, the Institutional Program for Teaching-Enhancing Scholarships - PIBID) that promote the teaching of threatened disciplines such as Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and even Portuguese. It is thus important to recover the country’s pedagogical history so that the function of disciplines in school and in society and the status currently attribute to them can be properly understood. This article discusses the history of the teaching of literature in Brazil. The discussion will be backed by statements on the teaching of literature in schools since the 2008 establishment of the PIBID by the Coordination for the Upgrading of Personnel in Higher Education (Capes).