ABSTRACT:
This essay intends to discuss the formative role of literature at a time when its institutional presence is regulated by utilitarian discourses characteristic of a market culture. For this purpose, the argument is divided into two moments. Firstly, it discusses some of the setbacks literature suffered in the last century that weakened the discourses that hitherto justified its presence in educational institutions. Then, the essay indicates the need to revisit the categories of “work,” “reader” and “tradition” as a way of establishing a “formative” role for literature. If our time is characterized by the acceleration of objects, the notions of “work,” “reader” and “tradition” can operate as counterpoints capable of interrupting the continuous flow of things, dictating another temporality for literary studies.
Keywords:
Literature; Formation; Reader; Teaching Institutions