A (suposta) falta de leitura dos campinenses: um discurso nada novo.

Abstract

In the present article, we intend to develop a reflection about the existence or not of readers in the city of Campina Grande-PB. To reasonably discuss this topic, it is essential to think about such issues as: who reads? What is read? How the reading is done? And where does this reading take place? The path chosen to contribute to the discussions about this theme was to relate these questions to a public reading space, which has existed in the city of Campina Grande-PB since 1938: its Municipal Public Library. But, within this shifting ground of reading practices, especially those carried out in libraries, we intend to make a cut that will take us to Campina Grande of the 1950s and to what was said in the newspapers on the subject. More specifically, we will return to texts that circulated in newspapers such as O Momento (September / 1950), JornalFormação (October / 1951 and October / 1953), O Globo (July / 1952 and August / 1952), Jornal do Estudante that were dedicated to discuss if and what was read in the city, especially in its Municipal Public Library. A total of six (6) texts will be analysed in order to verify which concepts of reading and of reading were implied by them, when mentioning the practices developed in that space.