Divination: playing to say (and to know?)

Abstract

In this article, the riddle, a literary genre of the oral tradition, is addressed in terms of forms of registration and updating, in a performance situation. Discussing the use of riddles by a storyteller and students, in the classroom, considering not only the playful aspect of the activity, but also the possibility of, through the text of the riddle to discuss customs of the past of the community to which the participants of these performances belong. The use of the riddle by the accountant configures the realization of the “guessing game”, which reveals its format oral. The texts mentioned here, exchanged by the accountant and the participants (4th grade students of Elementary School) demonstrated the feasibility of using the riddle to favor the development of listening and speaking skills, arguing from a said or read text. The presence of riddles is observed in publications that record this genus, even though its oral origin was declared. It is also mentioned, from the texts and the analysis of the accountant performances, possibilities of oral texts, such as riddles to support reading and writing projects in school.