Public Pages Public Pages

Public Pages

Reading Along the Latin American Streetscape

    • $34.99
    • $34.99

Publisher Description

Public reading programs are flourishing in many Latin American cities in the new millennium. They defy the conception of reading as solitary and private by literally taking literature to the streets to create new communities of readers. From institutional and official to informal and spontaneous, the reading programs all use public space, distribute creative writing to a mass public, foster collective rather than individual reading, and provide access to literature in unconventional arenas.

The first international study of contemporary print culture in the Americas, Public Pages reveals how recent cultural policy and collective literary reading intervene in public space to promote social integration in cities in Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. Marcy Schwartz looks at broad institutional programs such as UNESCO World Book Capital campaigns and the distribution of free books on public transportation, as well as local initiatives that produce handmade books out of recycled materials (known as cartoneras) and display banned books at former military detention centers. She maps the connection between literary reading and the development of cultural citizenship in Latin America, with municipalities, cultural centers, and groups of ordinary citizens harnessing reading as an activity both social and literary. Along with other strategies for reclaiming democracy after decades of authoritarian regimes and political violence, as well as responding to neoliberal economic policies, these acts of reading collectively in public settings invite civic participation and affirm local belonging.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2018
May 2
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
286
Pages
PUBLISHER
University of Texas Press
SELLER
University of Texas at Austin
SIZE
44.7
MB
Latin American Literature in Transition 1980–2018: Volume 5 Latin American Literature in Transition 1980–2018: Volume 5
2022
The Labor of Literature The Labor of Literature
2017
The Latin American Urban Crónica The Latin American Urban Crónica
2006
Urban Chroniclers in Modern Latin America Urban Chroniclers in Modern Latin America
2013
Pierre Bourdieu in Hispanic Literature and Culture Pierre Bourdieu in Hispanic Literature and Culture
2018
Beyond Tordesillas Beyond Tordesillas
2017