Os miúdos circos: encontros possíveis entre a cultura da infância e a cultura da escola

Abstract

The main goal of this research is to reflect on the relations between children's culture and school culture with regard to the carnivalizing and regenerating powers of childhood poetics against a schooling background. As the major substratum to the discussion we have likened children's culture to Bakhtin's Culture of Popular Laughter by focussing the carnivalizing power both have when in contact with dominant structures. Building on this assumption and using a Brazilian public school as the field, we have tried to collect what we call "tiny circuses", which can be understood as instances where childhood is able to thrive against the odds - expressing itself in its creative, inventive and poetic potency; going beyond individual children's lives and touching school culture. As theoretical background for the work we mainly draw from Walter Benjamin and Manoel de Barros for childhood concepts, from Mikhail Bakhtin for the carnivalization concept and from Benjamin, Larossa e Agamben for an experience concept.