Proud readers, ashamed readers: emotions in the discourses about reading

Abstract

According to the research I have been conducting and guiding in the Laboratory of Reading Studies (LIRE/CNPq - UFSCar), dedicated to the analysis of discourses about reading, in this research I aim to analyze a specific set of statements about this practice, whose specificity is characterized by the regular evocation of certain emotions. More precisely, we will undertake a discursive analysis of 'shame' and 'pride', affects that are evoked and manifested by speaking about reading or by speaking about yourself or others as readers. In our analyses we seek to deduce aspects of the functioning of these discourses about reading and their representations of the readers, describing and interpreting processes, forms and phenomena of their constitution, their formulation and their circulation in our society, in order to better understand the impact and scope of these ways of enunciating about the ways in which this practice and this subject position are conceived, evaluated and exercised between us. Assuming this subjective performance of discourses, I will analyze a broad corpus of statements, obtained from digital collections, social networks, conventional media texts and through answers to a questionnaire formulated for this purpose. Thus, I aim to contribute to the progress in studies on this practice in Brazil, when dealing with this aspect of the discourses about reading not yet explored exclusively and systematically and whose reflection is expected a better understanding of the immobilized or emancipatory functioning of our practices. To this end, we will theoretically and methodologically subscribe to the principles and notions of Discourse Analysis, by Michel Foucault, concerning the "order of discourse", that regulates the enunciable, its duration, the effects of its updating and circulation. We will also draw on the studies undertaken by cultural historians about reading, especially those developed by Roger Chartier articulated to conceptions of sociology of Bourdieusian cultural distinction. As far as emotions are concerned, we will draw on the treatment currently given to this theme by Cultural History and the History of Sensibilities, as undertaken by Jean-Jacques Courtine, as well as other studies from different disciplinary fields, which were dedicated to more specifically to feelings of 'shame' and 'pride'. (AU)