Literary reading as social practice in contemporaneity: beyond school space

Abstract

This article arises from the dialogue between three researchers who have dedicated an expressive part of their academic careers to look at the practice of reading, especially literary as a possibility for more critical personal and social participation. However, in a country where books are still expensive and most people do not have the purchasing power to buy them, it is undeniable that the discontinuity of public reading policies comes in the process contrary to the formation of literary readers. Furthermore, this break, as it will be presented in the body of the article, delays the achievements that were achieved in short steps in our country, especially in the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Thus, it is important to look at the suspension of important public reading policies and those that are being engineered in contemporary times, since we are living in a moment opposite to that shown by the historicity of literary reading, because with the loss of literature in official documents, as, for example, there is no specific component in the National Common Curricular Base – BNCC, and the non-mandatory nature of literature as a discipline. On the other hand, there is an unschooled movement being disseminated by friends, publishers, book clubs and libraries – known as the reading clubs which, despite not being a recent practice, have gained expression in the last six years in terms of Brazil and has been strengthening in the social moment we are going through as a result of the pandemic.