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Understand the new wave of denunciations of censorship of art with the book 'O Avesso da Pele'
Collected from schools in three states, the novel of Jeferson Tenorio is accused of infringing the ECA, which experts disagre
8.mar.2024 at 23h17
Marcella Franco'sPedro Martins
SÃO PAULO
More than a year after the start of the government of Lula, a discussion that mobilized the previous government Jair Bolsonaro's, has been taken up with all its might. This week, accusations of censorship of artists have moved social networks and brought culture to the center of the political boil on the eve of the election that will define the next mayors and councilors of the country.
"O Avesso da Pele", a book by Jeferson Tenorio that discusses racism, is being collected from schools in Paraná, Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul after a director of a school in Rio Grande do Sul called for the ban of the title for considering that their descriptions of sex scenes are inappropriate for high school students, aged between 14 and 18 years.
In parallel to this, the reading of excerpts with similar content by the writer Airton Souza, whose novel "Fall of Strange Meat" was the winner of the last Prize Sesc of Literature, during an event of the service in Flip, the Literary Festival of Paraty, was pivot of a controversy that threatens the continuity of the laurea, famous for revealing new talents.
The problem, according to Sesc, is that the audience at the event included children and adolescents. The episode was followed by the resignation of the creator of the award, Henrique Rodrigues. He states that the institution plans to create an internal evaluation instance for the winning works of the trophy.
Both Souza and Rodrigues accuse the award of censorship and homophobia, in a controversy that led the Editorial Record Group to threaten to suspend the 20-year agreement it maintains with the laureate.
Closing the combo is the sudden cancellation of a Johnny Hooker concert that would happen over the weekend by the Niteroi City Hall. The agency does not comment on the case, but the singer, who is homosexual, attributes the cancellation to the action of Bolsonaro politicians.
Of these three cases, the most rumored was "O Avesso da Pele", a novel that won the Jabuti Prize in 2021, which had about 90 thousand copies purchased and distributed by the Ministry of Education, the MEC, as part of the National Book and Teaching Material Program, the PNLD.
The Reverse of the Skin tells the story of a black literature teacher killed by police Flavio Fontana Dutra/Flavio Dutra, DisclosureMORE
Even before Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul followed the decision of the Parana government and asked for the collection of the book, artists and intellectuals had already created a petition in support of Tenorio. The document has more than 7,000 signatures, including those of fundamental names of national children's literature, such as Ana Maria Machado and Ziraldo.
The Secretary of Education of Parana, Roni Miranda Vieira, says he asked for the collection of the 2,000 copies distributed by the state school libraries because their sex scene infringes the ECA, Statute of Children and Adolescents.
"The books will be evaluated by the pedagogical team, who will tell if and how we can discuss this story with the students" says Vieira. He states that the action cannot be considered censorious, since the parent of any student at a state school can still ask the institution's library for a copy of the novel for their child.
In a note, the MEC states that the books are evaluated by teachers, masters and doctors before integrating the PNLD catalog. It also emphasizes that the "permanence in the program is voluntary" and that schools have the autonomy to choose "the materials that best suit their pedagogical reality". The MEC did not respond if "O Avesso da Pele" infringes the ECA guidelines.
Ariel de Castro Alves, member of the Commission on Children and Adolescents of the Brazilian Bar Association, OAB, in Sao Paulo, disagrees that the work violates the statute. He says the document prohibits the production or access to sexual content involving children and adolescents, which is not the case in the book.
The narrative has no sex scenes, but the protagonist remembers, at one point, how his father's girlfriends associated the color of his skin with eroticism, saying during sex phrases like "come, my nigga" or "love your black dick".
"If the book does not contain explicit or pornographic sex scenes, through pictures and images of children and adolescents, but only literary descriptions of adult sexual relations, the, I do not see any crime or violation of the ECA" says Alves, who has already chaired the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents.
Collected from schools in three states, the novel of Jeferson Tenorio is accused of infringing the ECA, which experts disagre
8.mar.2024 at 23h17
Marcella Franco'sPedro Martins
SÃO PAULO
More than a year after the start of the government of Lula, a discussion that mobilized the previous government Jair Bolsonaro's, has been taken up with all its might. This week, accusations of censorship of artists have moved social networks and brought culture to the center of the political boil on the eve of the election that will define the next mayors and councilors of the country.
"O Avesso da Pele", a book by Jeferson Tenorio that discusses racism, is being collected from schools in Paraná, Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul after a director of a school in Rio Grande do Sul called for the ban of the title for considering that their descriptions of sex scenes are inappropriate for high school students, aged between 14 and 18 years.
In parallel to this, the reading of excerpts with similar content by the writer Airton Souza, whose novel "Fall of Strange Meat" was the winner of the last Prize Sesc of Literature, during an event of the service in Flip, the Literary Festival of Paraty, was pivot of a controversy that threatens the continuity of the laurea, famous for revealing new talents.
The problem, according to Sesc, is that the audience at the event included children and adolescents. The episode was followed by the resignation of the creator of the award, Henrique Rodrigues. He states that the institution plans to create an internal evaluation instance for the winning works of the trophy.
Both Souza and Rodrigues accuse the award of censorship and homophobia, in a controversy that led the Editorial Record Group to threaten to suspend the 20-year agreement it maintains with the laureate.
Closing the combo is the sudden cancellation of a Johnny Hooker concert that would happen over the weekend by the Niteroi City Hall. The agency does not comment on the case, but the singer, who is homosexual, attributes the cancellation to the action of Bolsonaro politicians.
Of these three cases, the most rumored was "O Avesso da Pele", a novel that won the Jabuti Prize in 2021, which had about 90 thousand copies purchased and distributed by the Ministry of Education, the MEC, as part of the National Book and Teaching Material Program, the PNLD.
The Reverse of the Skin tells the story of a black literature teacher killed by police Flavio Fontana Dutra/Flavio Dutra, DisclosureMORE
Even before Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul followed the decision of the Parana government and asked for the collection of the book, artists and intellectuals had already created a petition in support of Tenorio. The document has more than 7,000 signatures, including those of fundamental names of national children's literature, such as Ana Maria Machado and Ziraldo.
The Secretary of Education of Parana, Roni Miranda Vieira, says he asked for the collection of the 2,000 copies distributed by the state school libraries because their sex scene infringes the ECA, Statute of Children and Adolescents.
"The books will be evaluated by the pedagogical team, who will tell if and how we can discuss this story with the students" says Vieira. He states that the action cannot be considered censorious, since the parent of any student at a state school can still ask the institution's library for a copy of the novel for their child.
In a note, the MEC states that the books are evaluated by teachers, masters and doctors before integrating the PNLD catalog. It also emphasizes that the "permanence in the program is voluntary" and that schools have the autonomy to choose "the materials that best suit their pedagogical reality". The MEC did not respond if "O Avesso da Pele" infringes the ECA guidelines.
Ariel de Castro Alves, member of the Commission on Children and Adolescents of the Brazilian Bar Association, OAB, in Sao Paulo, disagrees that the work violates the statute. He says the document prohibits the production or access to sexual content involving children and adolescents, which is not the case in the book.
The narrative has no sex scenes, but the protagonist remembers, at one point, how his father's girlfriends associated the color of his skin with eroticism, saying during sex phrases like "come, my nigga" or "love your black dick".
"If the book does not contain explicit or pornographic sex scenes, through pictures and images of children and adolescents, but only literary descriptions of adult sexual relations, the, I do not see any crime or violation of the ECA" says Alves, who has already chaired the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents.
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