A Pragmatic Perspective for the Study of Literacies in the Brazilian Peripheries

Abstract

This paper presents the general lines of a pragmatic perspective for the study of literacies in the Brazilian peripheries. ‘Pragmatic’ here is understood as that which produces a series of effects (in line with John L. Austin and Judith Butler) and as practice that articulates the law of the system, the quick of activity and the reflexive gaze of actors (in line with the communicative practice approach by William Hanks). The characterization of the perspective on literacies draws from studies that critique and politicize the relation between speech and writing, and that thereby question what counts as writing in a society. It also draws from ethnolinguistic works on systems of writing and pictorial inscription in Amerindian societies. These studies suggest that there is no human group without a conventional graphic system. Thus, the pragmatic approach of literacies in the peripheries is ultimately a form of dialogue with people who, in some way, already write, even if what they write is not legitimized as writing.