The participation of women in the grammaticography of Spanish as a foreign language in Brazil and the leading role of Beatriz de Chacel

Abstract

In this study, we describe the female participation in the writing of grammatical texts of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) in Brazil. We aim to analyze Beatriz de Chacel's pioneering work El español del colegio (1944). Furthermore, we began with a survey of the production and circulation of SFL grammars in Brazil, in which factors related to the publication context and authorship of the Brazilian SFL grammar were controlled. For the compilation of the corpus, we considered the library collections of Brazilian universities situated in five Brazilian regions, the National Library (RJ), bilingual schools situated in the southeastern region, and the units of the Instituto Cervantes in Brazil. We found 46 grammars that were published in Brazil and seven that were published overseas, all aimed at Brazilians. Among the Brazilian works, 24 were composed by women. Based on the available data, in addition to Beatriz de Chacel's (1944) work, four additional materials were deemed precursors for female involvement in the production of the material: (i) Lengua española, de Emilia Navarro Morales e Leônidas Sobrino Pôrto (1967); (ii) Gramática da língua espanhola, de Maria do Céu Carvalho e Agostinho Dias Carneiro (1969); (iii) Gramatica práctica de español, de Maria de Lourdes R Coimbra (1981), and (iv) Síntesis gramatical de la lengua española, de Maria Teodora Rodriguez Monzú Freire (1982). The analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the Historiography of Linguistics and considers the development of Hispanism in Brazil as a backdrop for the interpretation of the entire narrative, based on the proposal of the four waves of Brazilian Hispanism (Paraquett, 2020). Given the limitations of this discussion, the examination of the significance of the feminine in E/LE grammaticography effectively commences with a succinct presentation of the four works published during the second half of the 20th century. The following section examines El español del colegio, by Beatriz de Chacel (1944). It was observed that there was a relative delay in the inclusion of women in grammatical production, but that this had a significant impact on the teaching of the language in the country. Finally, the study of Chacel's work (1944) indicated a very progressive approach taken to facilitate the learning of the foreign language. However, in contrast to other contemporary authors, El español del colegio adopts a more conservative approach and is guided by the Royal Academy.