A potência do texto literário: reflexões a partir de uma experiência de leitura mediada na escola

Abstract

This work proposes a reflection on the formative power of literature based on the analysis of the pedagogical project Equipe de Leitura (“Reading Team”), aimed at students in lower secondary education. Grounded in the idea that narration is a foundational human practice (Harari, 2017; Piglia, 2015), the study demonstrates that literature, beyond entertainment, constitutes a form of knowledge and meaning-making. In a context marked by the devaluation of literary reading and its increasing instrumentalization by market logics (Perrone-Moisés, 2016), the project stands as a space of resistance and reinvention of literary practice within the school, promoting attentive listening, dialogue, and affective sharing among young readers. The selection of works is mediated through students’ participation, allowing them to take part in the decision-making process, strengthening the connections between text and personal experience, and reaffirming reading as an identity-building practice. Research data indicate that this approach fosters engagement, belonging, and aesthetic pleasure, shifting reading from a field of school obligation to one of sociability and symbolic construction. Although it faces challenges—such as reconciling diverse interests and developing meaningful reading activities—the project highlights the complexity and the potential of teaching work in reader formation, demanding sensitivity, planning, and ongoing reflection. In summary, Equipe de Leitura is configured as a space of pedagogical experimentation and investigation into the ways readers are constituted, reaffirming literature as an aesthetic, cognitive, and human experience.