Biografias da alma na universidade : imagens do mito do herói/heroína nas narrativas de vida de estudantes.

Abstract

The thesis proposes an understanding of ways to imagine the (co)existence within the university that emerge from the life narratives of undergraduate students at the Federal University of Santa Maria Campus in Cachoeira do Sul/RS (UFSM-CS). Within the scope of qualitative research with a phenomenological, experiential-dialogical, and symbolic approach, the study includes the experience of conversation circles with students, with expressive manifestations through the clayword, a term used to name the composition between clay modeling and orality in the narratives. The methodology of symbolic amplification is employed to understand and analyze the material that emerges from the proposed experiences. Fieldwork is recorded through photographs, logbook notes, and audio recording transcriptions. The images of the hero/heroine myth, as ways to imagine the (co)existence within the university in the students' narratives, emerge in symbolic amplifications, demonstrating their sense-generating power for the expressive manifestations of the collective unconscious and the deepening of lived experiences within higher education. Drawing from the theoretical references in Carl Gustav Jung, James Hillman, Joseph Campbell, and other authors, the research considers that the logic of myths helps to select the plot of narratives in the psyche. The students' life narratives are understood as biographies of the soul, presenting a perspective of deepening their own images. The study considers that giving one's narrative a sense of myth is a way to find deeper meanings for what is experienced in each person's journey at the university. The dialogue between the storyteller and the listener creates a (trans)formative space, a term that highlights an inseparability between formation and transformation, related to the process of individuation. Based on the symbolic dimension evidenced in the narratives by the clayword of students, the investigation weaves reflections and inquiries about the university and education, indicating the need for space-times for the expressive manifestation of students, for sensitive listening, and for welcoming and caring for the different journeys that are chronicled in higher education, so that deeper meanings resonate in the (co)existence within the university.