Horror literature: from Mary Shelley to Neil Gaiman, a genre to captivate teenage students

Abstract

Working with Literature in classroom is a challenge which many teachers face, mainly when incorporating literary texts in an EFL context. In Brazilian public schools the problems regarding this topic are even bigger. One of the most common arguments concerning the use of Literature in class is the lack of motivation from the students, who are often distracted by other means of entertainment, such as social media, films and series. The Horror Literature is a genre on which the teacher can keep the students' attention, due to its proximity to what the physical and psychological transformations students might face in their real life. Considering the High School levels and the issues related to adolescence, the Horror Literature can help the teachers to approximate on the students' emotions and they can make a connection between fiction and reality. As the characters face fictional problems, the teenager students might have been facing real problems, so, this proximity can help them to ponder upon many things. Talking about the emotional effect of the reading, it can foster the students' empathy and develop a critical thinking regarding many subjects. Another possibility that Horror Literature provides is the cultural aspect intrinsic to the literary works. As it is stated at BNCC (Base Nacional Comum Curricular) that English is a lingua franca and it should be taught taking into account the cultural aspects of the language, it is possible to say that Horror is a genre specially connected to American's beliefs. In North America, there is a strong relation with supernatural tales about witches related to the settlement of the country. Other aspect is the Native American beliefs and tales about monsters and creatures who live in the forests. Talking about the introduction of the literary text in an EFL classroom, it is possible to have an increase of the students' vocabulary and fluency. This paper aims to reach a model of a reading project, through a lesson plan contemplating five classes of fifty minutes, designed for the second grade of High School. It was developed through a bibliographical research of the literature on this subject. The main authors quoted in this paper are Candido (2004), Cosson (2006), Punter (1996), Matek (2015) and Dalcanalle (2015). The final goals of this paper are to propose a reflection about the introduction of Literature in EFL classes to boost our student's creativity, critical development and knowledge on the target language and to ponder about the benefits of working with Horror Literature with High School students. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]