The visibility of women’s literary heritage in the city of Tarragona as an educational practice

Abstract

The literary canon presented in textbooks is based on an androcentric perspective. The new education law and various teaching initiatives seek to reverse this situation of inequality. Current educational legislation allows teachers to develop new methodologies in the form of learning situations. This paper analyses the present educational context in which local women writers are rendered invisible, and proposes an educational action based on a previous literary initiative carried out in the city of Tarragona within the framework of the Viles Florides programme. Two activities are described, from the development of the teaching materials to their implementation in the classroom, and their pedagogical outcomes are evaluated. The proposal integrates the natural environment of the city—source of visible heritage—with women writers linked to the local territory—source of invisible heritage. The poetic gardens of the city of Tarragona can serve as a tool for teaching poetry and for making the city’s female literary legacy in Catalan visible, both for students and the general public. Teachers can use this material to initiate or consolidate literary education within the curriculum and to break with the established literary canon. It is an educational resource that enables work on reading, poetic creation and high-quality local women authors. This initiative has transformative potential from a cultural, educational and gender perspective.