USP changes Fuvest book list and will only charge women – 11/21/2023 – Education

Fuvest, which selects entrants from USP, the country’s main university, will have for the first time in history a mandatory reading list only with works written by women. Given the importance that Fuvest and USP have, this is not just a change in the entrance exam, but one that impacts the teaching of literature in the country.

The new list, which Sheet anticipates exclusively (see at the end of the report), it is valid from the test that will be held in 2025, for admission to university in 2026.

For three years, that is, 2026, 2027 and 2028, the list will only have female authors, and even Machado de Assis, a classic of mandatory reading in university entrance exams, will be left out.

“This is a breaking list,” said Gustavo Monaco, executive director of Fuvest and member of the USP University Council. “We are aware that there will be resistance, even internally at the university, because the mandatory reading list has always followed the justifiable line of requiring the reading of the canons,” he said.

“Obviously, no one argues that the authors on the previous lists are big names, but the question that must be asked is: to what extent does this consecration have a relationship with the fact that so many female authors have been silenced in the history of literature?”

From the 2025 entrance exam onwards, candidates will have to read works by the following authors: Conceição Evaristo, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, Julia Lopes de Almeida, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Narcisa Amália, Nísia Floresta, Paulina Chiziane, Rachel de Queiroz and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.

Monaco admits that he himself did not know some of these writers. “When we decided on this all-female list, we had to do some research, look for works that maintained the literary quality that the list has always had,” he said. “And it was clear that these books had quality and were excluded because they were written by women.”

“With this list, high school teachers will be able to work with students on the characteristics of literary schools in the same way they did with Machado de Assis, José de Alencar, with all the canons.”

Furthermore, Monaco hopes that the change will also generate a debate about the silencing of these authors. “We want to see what this rescue in education will be like.”

Vice-rector of USP and president of the Fuvest board of trustees, Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, who participated in the decision to change the list of books, argued that it is important to value women in literature not only as characters, but also as authors. Aluísio Cotrim Segurado, dean of undergraduate studies at USP, considered this to be “a courageous change”.

Two weeks ago, the Sheet published an unprecedented survey that showed that Fuvest is the test that, historically, required fewer works written by women, compared to other universities well placed in the RUF (Folha University Ranking).

With the change, however, Fuvest is at the forefront, as none of the universities analyzed by the newspaper have ever had an all-female book list. The most there was was gender parity, maintained by the Federal University of Santa Catarina since 2020 and that of Rio Grande do Sul since 2021.

In the list previously released by Fuvest for 2026, there was only one author and eight men. She was Ruth Guimarães, who remains in 2025, but disappears the following year. In addition to her and Machado, Dyonélio Machado, Eça de Queirós, Gonçalves Dias, Luís Bernardo Honwana, Mario de Andrade and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga fell.

Monaco states that the new list was already ready when the survey was published Sheetbut it was not announced so as not to confuse this year’s entrance exam candidates, who took the first phase test last Sunday (19).

Fuvest, in principle, had decided to change the list from 2027, in order to include students who will enter the 1st year of high school in 2024. But it chose to bring it forward to 2026, according to Monaco, because a relevant author was not found of Arcadianism, a literary school that is studied in the 1st year of high school – this lack of Arcadian authors, Monaco ponders, is certainly related to sexist structures, even more present at the time.

From the 2nd year of high school onwards, romanticism and realism are learned, and, therefore, students who will take Fuvest 2026, with a test at the end of 2025, will have time to study the authors of the new list, representatives of these schools literary.

Machado de Assis should return in 2029

The intention is to carry out this three-year experiment “as a rescue measure”, according to the director of Fuvest. “We want to see how schools will work with these authors,” he said. “After that, the first man we decided would return to the list is Machado de Assis. I know he would understand the reason for being out for these three years.”

Honwana and Machado are once again billed for the class of 2029, respectively with “We Kill O Cão Tinhoso!” and “Dom Casmurro”. “Incident in Antares”, by Érico Verissimo, also appears on this year’s list.

In the 2027 entrance exam, the reading of “As Meninas”, by Lygia Fagundes Telles, is exchanged for “A Paixão Segundo GH”, by Clarice Lispector, and the book charged by Portuguese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen changes from “O Cristo Cigano “, from 1961, to “Geography”, from 1967.

For the following year, 2028, the work of Nísia Floresta, a 19th century feminist author still little known, who has emerged from historical invisibility, changes from “Opúsculo Humanitária”, from 1853, to “Conselhos à Minha Filha”, from 1842. Rachel de Queiroz, from Ceará, goes from “Caminho de Pedras”, from 1937, to “João Miguel”, published five years earlier.

To accommodate the three male authors in 2029, “A Paixão Segundo GH”, by Clarice, “Memórias de Martha”, by Julia Lopes de Almeida, and “Balada de Amor ao Vento”, by Mozambican Paulina Chiziane, will disappear from the test.

The changes to the lists, according to Monaco, were also concerned with including black authors. From the all-female list, black Paulina Chiziane, Brazilian Conceição Evaristo and Angolan Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida — all contemporary and engaged in the anti-racist debate.

In 2029, there are two black men, Machado de Assis and the Mozambican short story writer Luís Bernardo Honwana, in addition to the maintenance of Djaimilia and Conceição.

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FUVEST BOOKS

See below the complete lists of mandatory readings to enter USP in the coming years

Fuvest 2026
“Humanitarian Booklet” (1853) – Nísia Floresta
“Nebulas” (1872) – Narcisa Amália
“Memories of Martha” (1899) – Julia Lopes de Almeida
“Stone Path” (1937) – Rachel de Queiroz
“The Gypsy Christ” (1961) – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
“As Meninas” (1973) – Lygia Fagundes Telles
“Balada de Amor ao Vento” (1990) – Paulina Chiziane
“Song for Lullaby Menino Grande” (2018) – Conceição Evaristo
“The Vision of Plants” (2019) – Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida

Fuvest 2027
“Humanitarian Booklet” (1853) – Nísia Floresta
“Nebulas” (1872) – Narcisa Amália
“Memories of Martha (1899) – Julia Lopes de Almeida
“Stone Path” (1937) – Rachel de Queiroz
“The Passion According to GH (1964) – Clarice Lispector
“Geography” (1967) – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
“Balada de Amor ao Vento” (1990) – Paulina Chiziane
“Song for Lullaby Menino Grande” (2018) – Conceição Evaristo
“The Vision of Plants” (2019) – Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida

Fuvest 2028
“Advice to My Daughter” (1842) – Nísia Floresta
“Nebulas” (1872) – Narcisa Amália
“Memories of Martha” (1899) – Julia Lopes de Almeida
“João Miguel” (1932) – Rachel de Queiroz
“The Passion According to GH” (1964) – Clarice Lispector
“Geography” (1967) – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
“Balada de Amor ao Vento” (1990) – Paulina Chiziane
“Song for Lullaby Menino Grande” (2018) – Conceição Evaristo
“The Vision of Plants” (2019) – Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida

Fuvest 2029
“Advice to My Daughter” (1842) – Nísia Floresta
“Nebulas” (1872) – Narcisa Amália
“Dom Casmurro” (1899) – Machado de Assis
“João Miguel” (1932) – Rachel de Queiroz
“We Killed the Wicked Dog!” (1964) – Luís Bernardo Honwana
“Geography” (1967) – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
“Incident in Antares” (1970) – Érico Veríssimo
“Song for Lullaby Menino Grande” (2018) – Conceição Evaristo
“The vision of Plants” (2019) – Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida