Leer con otros. Aportaciones a la dimensión social de la lectura

Abstract

The aim of present paper is to stress the social character of reading, avoiding consider it only as school activity. In this paper some academics reading practices are criticized, because they contribute to distort the original meaning of the literary reading, which is to understand and recognize the social world through the intimate world of the writer, and at the same time to use the literary and philosophical texts as a way of understanding of own life of readers. Understand a literary text is always an attempt to make sense of the existence and, as numerous authors point out, that search of meaning is makes better through the dialogue, in company of others readers. Reading groups are expressions of the desire of know and understand within a community. This article also highlights the important social role of books, reading or public libraries in collective disaster or individual affliction situations.