Rural readers : ethical-practical appropriation of senses attributed to reading * LISIANE

* A reduced version of this article was presented at the 36th ANPEd Meeting Goiânia. ABSTRACT This paper discusses issues related to assiduous readers in rural areas and their practices of reading, mainly regarding the meaning they attribute to reading, based on the concept of appropriation developed by Roger Chartier. This approach results from a previous research which investigated the progress of six rural readers whose daily reading is not connected to their occupations. The theoretical support based on the sociologist Bernard Lahire gives significant contribution since it proposes an analysis of the individual scale, in which the social aspect is addressed individually. The investigation of these readers’ progress enabled not only the relation they establish between the rural area and reading to be perceived but also an image of reading practices in the social world to be outlined. In the texts they read, the most common themes show there is an approximation to the schemes of the actors’ own experience, a fact that reveals ethical-practical appropriation of reading.


INTRODUCTION
The contemporary social dynamic has intensified and expanded the circulation of written culture in urban environments, where the relationship with writing occurs at various levels and reading takes on multiple forms.As Viñao Frago (1999) stated, "writing was born in the urban environment", which is a space of social relations intermediated by writing.Given this consecrated relationship between written and urban culture,1 rural culture in turn, carries a representation of the absence or the rarefication of writing.Therefore, this paper will address some issues related to the reading practice of assiduous readers2 with ties to rural areas, especially in relation to their appropriation of their readings.The approach is based on the result of a concluded study of the trajectory of six rural readers who have little schooling, are over 70 years old and who read daily and not for professional purposes.The theoretical assumptions that guided the analysis are linked to the history of reading and concepts from the sociology of reading and culture.The analysis of the individual trajectory of these readers gave visibility to reading practices in rural areas, and allowed sketching an image of reading in the social world.
According to Darnton (1995), the stage of a book's circuit that is most difficult to study is that of reading practices, because defining how readers assimilate their books requires a thorough analysis that ranges from the readers' socio-historical background to the specificities of reading practices.However, it is understood that new study opportunities, which correspond to new theoretical and methodological trends in historical research, have made these investigations possible by providing theoretical support in which the individual gains space and representativeness and is understood to be a unique actor; although one that is linked to a particular social group.The theoretical framework offered by sociologist Bernard Lahire (2002Lahire ( , 2004aLahire ( , 2005) ) offers significant contributions by proposing investigations related to a sociology on an individual scale, in which the social is approached individually.
Thus, six individuals residing in small cities in the south of Rio Grande do Sul State compose the framework of the deponents, four men and two women: Antonio, Nei, Henrique, Ismael, Ondina and Tecla. 3The readers presented here were born between 1916 and 1936, and attended three to five years of primary school, with the exception of Ismael, who had no formal schooling, and Nei, who reached high school.All come from farming families, and are descendants of European immigrants, whose professional life was composed by rural activities with family labor and strong bonds with the rural context.Therefore, these are not wealthy families with high levels of schooling.As farmers, these actors do not exercise an activity of social prominence.It should also be considered that the geographical distances characteristic to rural areas tend to hamper access to a range of cultural activities.So, if only family heritage and education were listed as key elements in the formation of socio-cultural practices, it would be difficult to consider and understand the formation of the disposition (cf.Lahire, 2002) towards reading of these six actors.Chartier (2002) helps to understand these situations, affirming that it is essential that studies reconstruct particular situations, and avoid looking only at the structures that regulate social relations, given that it is essential to consider "the rationalities and the strategies executed by the communities, kinship groups, families, and individuals" in their social forms.(idem, p. 84) In this analysis, the individual reader is investigated from the social in its embodied form, that is, the folded social (Lahire, 2002).Thus, by considering that internalized dispositions are a result of past socialization, the individual is the result of expanded social reality.Grasping this social reality is quite complex, according to Lahire (idem), requiring the comparison of a lot of information.Therefore, the analysis should be vertical, that is, involve the crossing of several data that correspond to the trajectory of a single individual.In this study, the oral sources were the main methodological element in data collection.Thirty interviews with the six actors were conducted, defined as in-depth interviews.That is, the readers spoke freely about their life trajectories and the relationship they established with reading in long declarations.Besides the interviews, other documents were added to the empirical material, such as the recorded field notes (Bogdan;Biklen, 1994), the registration of private collections of the people interviewed, and other personal documents they provided.
The biographical aspects of the interviews established that the six readers experienced social, economic, political and cultural events of national and international scope and transformations that, somehow, touched their lives in a particular way.The episodes involving Brazil in World War II, the German migration to southern Brazil, government policies, and others, are historical facts of the twentieth century and are present in the memory of these social actors.Through their self-invention, in the face of a larger universe, these individuals sought to locate themselves through their narratives in a particular social and temporal context.

ETHICAL-PRACTICAL APPROPRIATIONS OF READINg
To analyze the appropriations that readers make of their readings, the dispositions incorporated by each one of the individuals are considered.According to Lahire (2002, p.94), when readers appropriate a text, they make the schemes of their own experience work, distinguishing among them according to the type of social experience to which they are sensitive to, without being restricted to the socio-cultural belonging of each social group.Thus, the term appropriation, in the sense presented by Chartier (2002), will be used in this analysis from the perspec-tive of the individual scale, considering the variables that comprise the different individual trajectories.
Chartier approaches the studies of Michel de Certeau by conceptualizing the term "appropriation" as the plurality of uses and the diversity of interpretations used for the read text, yet linked to the socio-historical process experienced by readers.This happens because as Chartier alerts (2001, p.116), "we must see that each appropriation has its resources and practices, and that others depend on the socio-historic identity of each community and reader 4 ".In this sense, the approaches focused on an unequal distribution of objects, as the main criteria of cultural hierarchy, are left behind, and the investigations turn to the diversified employment of usages and meanings of a single good, that is, characterizing "practices that make different appropriations of the materials that circulate in a given society 5 " (Chartier, 1990, p.136).
Therefore, the author rejects the direct relationship that is established between cultural habits and social profile, proposing a focus not on this relationship but on the uses, -at times contrasting -which are made of the same objects in different social spaces.However, by understanding that the social-historical identity of an individual influences the process of appropriation of reading, Chartier (idem), refers to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus, pointing to the shared uses in a social group.Chartier affirms: […] that the contrasting practices should be understood as competitions, that their differences are organized by strategies for distinction or of imitation and that the various employments of the same cultural goods are enrooted in the dispositions of the habitus of each group. 6(idem, p.137).
Based on these assumptions, it is understood that the readers interviewed appropriate the texts from their incorporated dispositions, which allow them to think, act and interpret.Thus, they do not take as the initial analysis the most frequent dispositions of habitus in each social group, but the individual ones.According to Lahire (2002, p.94), readers, when incorporating a text, make the schemes of their own experience work, distinguishing among them according to the type of social experience to which they are sensitive, without restricting them to the socio-cultural belonging of each social group.
Moreover, Lahire (2002Lahire ( , 2004b)), based on the aesthetic criticism by Mikhail Bakhtin, and on the sociology of cultural production and consumption, by Pierre 4 My translation: "We must see that each appropriation has its resources and practices, and that some depend on the socio-historical identity of each community and of each reader."5 My translation: "practices that appropriate differently from materials that circulate in a given society."6 My translation: [...] that the contrasting practices shall be understood as competitions, that their differences are organized by strategies of distinction or imitation and that the various jobs of the same cultural goods are rooted in the dispositions of the habitus of each group.
Bourdieu, establishes an opposition between aesthetic dispositions and ethicalpractical dispositions of appropriation.The author defines as aesthetic disposition reading in which "the artistic form (the style, the manner, the representation...) is emphasized over the content " (2002, p.91), this is a reading especially characterized by professional readers, literary critics who give priority to literary style.In the ethical-practical disposition, content overlaps style, and the text is not anchored on textual reality, but on a practical setting.Based on empirical research, Lahire (idem,p.92)indicates that the ethical-practical disposition supposes: […] a participation, identification and anchoring of the text in the elements of past or present everyday experience.The anchoring of the reading in a different reality from the literary reality explained the fact that the theme, the subject and the real effects produced by style and/or context were often put in front of the author, the style, which were never mentioned, when it came to novels, literary trends or publishers.
The opposition between the modes of appropriation thus separates lay readers from professional readers.Lay readers, are those "exterior to the implications of the literary field, ordinary consumers and spectators" who may at times compare authors or literary trends.Professional readers are "agents engaged in the competitive struggles in the field (writers, critics, cultural journalists, etc.)" (idem, p. 93).However, this opposition in relation to the appropriation is not linked to concepts that place the popular readers and graduated readers on opposite sides, nor is it linked to cultural consumption and the effects of cultural legitimacy.In this regard, Lahire warns: The readers with higher cultural levels do the same things as our readers of the popular classes: they dive into situations, identify with the characters, love them or hate them, anticipate what will happen or imagine, feel emotions, laugh or cry when reading novels (idem, ibidem).
Therefore, lay, educated or popular readers appropriate the texts based on their ethical-practical disposition, and on their stocks of incorporated summarized experiences, with the appropriation linked, as Chartier (2002) suggested, to the socio-historical process experienced by each reader.Therefore, lay readers differ from each other, in relation to the use of the texts, according to the social experiences to which they were submitted, according to their social conditions, and school, family or professional trajectory.These aspects establish a taste for a particular subject or theme, and also contribute to the meaning attributed to a reading.For Lahire (2002, p.94), the themes that catch the reader's attention are linked to the cultural or social proximity to the subject of the text, since they allow participation or identification with what is being read, "thus allowing, in an imaginary way, the schemes of their own experience to work".Nevertheless, for the author, this link is not established logically and directly, that is, workers do not necessarily like novels that talk about working conditions, and women do not necessarily like novels that talk about women.
In the case of the readers analyzed, it is possible to see reading practices in which ethical-practical appropriations predominate.In their readings, the most recurring themes have an approximation to the specific experience of the actors, especially those themes linked to past or heard experiences (through stories told by parents or grandparents), which reveal unique forms of appropriation of the text read.

THE MEANINgS ATTRIBUTED TO READINg IN THE ExPERIENCE OF EACH READER
When reading, the actors analyzed recall the past through books, get to know other places from readings related to what is known to them, recreate, interpret and live the moment of their life cycles given the opportunities that the "world of reading" offers.For Goulemot (2001, p. 110), the relationship between a reader and reading is referred to as "out-of-text", the result of a collective and personal history.Similarly, for De Certeau (1994, p. 264-265), reading is a process of creation and production specific to the reader, who "does not take the place of the author nor an author's place", given that the reader is free to invent other things that are not exactly what was proposed, by combining fragments "creating something unknown in the organized space by his ability to allow an indefinite plurality of meanings".Poetically, De Certeau describes the reader that appropriates a text, giving it a meaning: Far from being writers, founders of their own place, the heirs of old serfs, but now working on the ground of language, diggers of wells and home builders, readers are travelers; they circulate in other people's lands, nomads that hunt on their own through the fields that they did not write, snatching the goods from Egypt to enjoy them (idem, p. 269-270).
Consequently, each individual gives a more or less unique meaning to the text they read based on their individual or social, historical or existential references.Thus, the approach established here will observe the relationship that these six readers have with the texts, reading the impressions, appropriations, interpretations and meanings attributed to the texts, particularly through what they "say" about their readings.
The paper first discusses some examples of Ismael's relationship with reading that, based on local and regional history books, seeks to learn about his family history and "confirm" stories told by his father.The themes most narrated by Ismael include events related to Rio Grande do Sul State during Brazil's First Republic period .In his narratives, the episodes experienced by the family and the reading about these events were interspersed, as can be seen in his words: "I took here a xerox copy of the Old Republic which was a horrible government, I know why I grew up listening to my father telling me about banditry, theft, (...) that's what's in there [in the text], the way the action of the colonels worked".Several times, during his narrative, Ismael mentioned locating his family surname in printed texts, thus reaffirming that the books show the family's opposition to the party of Borges de Medeiros7 and the consequences of that political position.
According to Ismael's words, after 1930, Brazil became more democratic, even though it was under a dictatorship.His readings helped to strengthen his position on the subject: "I grew up with my father being one of the federalists, and when Getulio Vargas took office, they were suffering great persecution".These family experiences have led Ismael to always indicate his support for the Vargas government, seeking to confirm his individual experiences through the texts he read, which is evident in his words below: One day, a girl who did not have a lot of information, told me: "The Vargas government was crooked."I said: "You are very intelligent, but your never read anything about Vargas!"She looked at me! Vargas was a dictator for 15 years and was deposed.I was eight when he took power and when he left I was 23.He did not lose his rights because he was deposed on October 29, and the elections were 32 days later, on December 2, 1945.It was the first election after Getulio, I was serving my country in Quaraí, it was a hideous election.He supported General Dutra who won by a large margin of votes and he was elected senator of Rio Grande do Sul and congressman of São Paulo and seven states.So I told this girl: "You take this book and you will see something that I grew up watching." The book he referred to was Memórias de Getúlio [Memories of Getúlio], by Queiroz Junior, published in 1957, which certainly exalts the president's image.Ismael's narratives have lots of details, as do the felt and lived stories.In the narrative above, it is observed that the age he was when Vargas entered and left office, the place where he was, and what he was doing at the time of the elections, are personal facts that were intertwined to the national history, and were also related to the meanings assigned to the text he read.
In another situation, when talking about the book Getúlio e seu tempo: um retrato de luz e sombra [Getúlio and his time: a portrait of light and shadow], by Fernando Jorge, published in 1985, Ismael asked a question that he intended to answer: "Why light and shadow? 8" He said that "the light" of the Vargas government refers to a government that was the father of labor laws, the great friend of the workers, the creator of the steel industry, and attributed many other works and adjectives to Vargas.After reading, Ismael smiled and said: "that explains the title of this work, the portrait of light and shadow, the light of Getúlio's virtue and the shadow of his sins and imperfections9 ".However, when he was asked about a passage in the book referring to the "shadows" of this government, he immediately replied: No, the thing with Getúlio is this, many people were against him because he arrested many people because of the dictatorship, those who were against the law of the nation.But the only way he could end the corruption, the treachery and disorder, was with the dictatorship.I even have an example, I still have documents from the coronelismo, which was awful.
Gathering arguments and indicating the presence of documents that prove what happened before Vargas, Ismael justified the necessary "shadows "of the Vargas government, not indicating any excerpt from the book that took up the debate.Therefore, it is noticed that in the attributed meanings and in the choices that are made when a text is appropriated, "there is a contemporary, nearly lived history, that works with the text in the reading process" (cf.Goulemot, 2001 p. 111).
In another moment, when he was questioned about the military dictatorship period in Brazil, Ismael said that he had little reading on the subject, mentioning only that this was "another time".However, during one of the interviews, while flipping through a history textbook, he referred to President Médici as follows: "here is the Médici government [he begins to read]: 'the Médici government was the champion of dictatorial power and repressive violence against society10 '".About this sentence, he commented: "It was one of the worst, but he was violent in politics, but for the people it was not like that, but in politics he ruled with an iron hand11 ".It is observed that, regardless of what he has read, the meaning attributed to the phrase strives to confirm his favorable perception of the military government of president Médici due to the justification that differentiates political violence and violence against the people.
In his readings, Antonio, like Ismael, especially highlights the stories of his life experience.When referring to books, he takes them as representatives of "knowledge" as the place where he finds what his little schooling could not offer him: "I do a lot of research in books, to know what happened".Reading as a means of accessing knowledge was also observed in the survey conducted by Petit (2008, p. 61) in the French context: "when we interviewed the rural population, this was also a theme that frequently arose: 'books are knowledge, they are what I would like to know 12 '".With a discrete manner, Antonio did not show much willingness to talk about the knowledge acquired through his readings.When asked about a specific book, he immediately offered: "If you want I will lend you the book 13 ".The themes that motivate and sensitize him to the reading practice are those related to local history, the origin of his family and events that involve German ethnicity.
One of his favorite things to read about is the history of the small city where he lives.In possession of a book called Canguçu Reencontro com a História [Canguçu, Re-encounter with History] by Claudio Moreira Bento, published in 2007, he made the following consideration: "Here it's written the road of the foges [he begins to read]: 'But where is it?No one knows where the road of the foges was.' Well, I know where it is […] I would like to talk with this author and say to him where this road is, I know where it is 14 ".In the relationship established with books, the experienced and observed local history is constantly related to the readings, serving as motivation and demarcating the usages and interpretations that he makes of the books.
Concerning the book Saxões: os povos do passado [Saxons, the people of the past], by Toni D. Triggs, Antonio said: "My grandfather always said, respect me, I am Saxon [smiles]".Ethnic origin also motivated Antonio to use books to find facts related to Germany and German immigrants and their descendants.Therefore, from an investigative reading practice, he crosses data and produces information, even organizing the family tree, identifying surnames in the books he read, reading documents and hearing family members.
In 1940, when he was 11 years old, Antonio was taken to the city of Porto Alegre on a trip organized by the Vargas government, during Homeland week, when he was supposed to, as he said, "learn to be Brazilian".In 1942, orphaned by his father's death, Antonio was taken out of school due to the ethnic prejudice suffered by German descendants.These experiences seem to have contributed to the careful way in which Antonio refers to some historical events, such as the persecution of German descendants during World War II, the Getúlio Vargas government and the Holocaust.Although demonstrating that he had read about these topics, he did not express his position during the interviews, making only a few comments.
One of his books is the work of Siegfried Castan, entitled Holocausto Judeu ou Alemão?nos Bastidores da Mentira do Século [Holocaust: Jew or German?Behind the scenes of the lie of the century], which denies the existence of systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazis during World War II.When he referred to the book, Antonio soon clarified that he bought it from a street vendor, since this was a forbidden book, whose author emphasizes that each person must read it and draw their own conclusions.However, Antonio later said: "Hitler did not like the Jews, because it seems they exploited others, they did not produce, they just wanted to exploit others.But what this book says is that all these deaths are not true, they are not people, they are dolls" [referring to the images in the book].Even if he has an opinion on the subject, when commenting on the book he uses terms like "seems" 13 My translation: "If you want I lend you the book."14 My translation: "Here is written estrada dos foges [starts to read], 'But where is it?It is not known where it was estrada de foges.'Now, I know where it is!(...) I would like to speak with the author and tell him where this road is, I know where it is." and "what this book says is", and somehow he exempts himself from expressing a more definite opinion about the argument defended in the book, although it is clear that he does not believe that Hitler caused so many deaths.
According to Goulemot (2001, p. 107), there is no naive reading, "pre-cultural, distant from any outside reference to it15 ".In this regard, Goulemot uses the notion of a library, to indicate the memories of previous readings and cultural data that produce the attributed meanings.As he stated, "the meaning is born, to a large degree, from both this cultural exterior and from the text itself and it is quite certain that it is from already acquired meanings that is born the meaning to be acquired16 " (idem, p. 115).Certainly, when Antonio reads not only the book Holocausto Jew or German?, but when reading in general, he uses the social and cultural conceptions he acquired in other circumstances that will work with the text and contribute to the constitution of meanings, because, according to Goulemot (idem), there is no autonomous understanding, imposed by the book that is read.
Henrique, like Antonio, when referring to his readings, revives a series of events, such as military service, the call to return to the military barracks during World War II, the education handed down to his children and his low schooling, as elements that contribute to the construction of meanings attributed to his readings.A supporter of Getúlio Vargas and Leonel Brizola, the favorable arguments towards these two politicians are particularly anchored in issues that involve his private life, as can be seen in his statement "Getúlio defended me at that time, in 1940 I was serving in the Army, I left and was called back.(...) I presented myself on the last day (...).Getúlio ended the expedition, no more Brazilians would be sent over".
In the case of Brizola, the family's needs were met by one of his government's economic policies.Henrique explained that his wife sewed all the family's clothes by hand with needle and thread, and he could not afford to buy a sewing machine.But, when Brizola was the governor of Rio Grande do Sul State, between 1959 and 1963, he increased the price of onions, a product raised by Henrique's family, changing his financial situation, as he explained: "Brizola entered the government and increased the price of a kilo of onions to eleven hundred, I made good money, paid the debt and had some money left.(...) This machine, over there, was special to me, it was Brizola who gave it to me, because with those onions I bought this machine for my wife".The photos of Getúlio Vargas and Brizola on the living room wall in his home is justified as follows: "I am in debt to these two politicans, Getúlio and Brizola.(...) I can't thank them, I leave their portrait here to remember these politicians who defended me".These are the aspects that are part of Henrique's "inventory of incorporated experiences", which are directly linked to the meanings that he employs to the texts that he reads.
With the book Getúlio Vargas in hand, written by Ivar Hartmann, and published in 1984, Henrique spoke about the importance of reading: "If you don't read, the darkness is ahead of you.This book is very good, (…)he was a great president, it's just like it says here, and they wouldn't write what didn't happen".Even trying to emphasize the importance of reading as a means of acquiring knowledge, he often showed that his intention was to confirm his positions through the readings.This was evident in his own statements: "It's by reading about who this man was [Vargas] that we respect him.Although he did things that were a bit rash, he wasn't very tame17 ".Vargas' "rash" attitudes are justified, according to Henrique who spoke in particular about two issues: the deportation of Olga Benário and the persecution of German immigrants during World War II.
In three of his interviews, Henrique spoke about Getúlio Vargas'death, indicating that he was not pleased with the outcome of his readings; at other times, he seemed to be convinced that that the president was assassinated.Among other things, Henrique said: Look, I'm not sure, because from what I have read and heard he was killed.But the conclusion that I have from what I read, the form of administration that he was undertaking, I think he was killed, he did not kill himself.Because foreigners admired Getulio's ideas, he had a superior mind, in his administrative style and his way of leading the life of the people, and it was envied.
To confirm his suspicion about Getúlio's murder, Henrique used a fiction book to prove his arguments, revealing he did not recognize the literary style of the book.He said: "I have this book that explains who killed him.The name of the guy who killed him, how he prepared the henchman to kill him [Getúlio]".Henrique is referring to the character Dimitri Borja Korozec, created by Jô Soares, in his historical novel O Homem que Matou Getúlio Vargas [The Man Who Killed Getúlio Vargas].Henrique's statements, about a work of fiction, can be considered as a lapse in his reading, demonstrating that he was clearly confused and, given the desire to confirm Vargas'assasination, he appropriated a fiction book considering it to be a text about real events.In this regard, Lahire (2002, p. 100) offers the following consideration: "forgetfulness, reading error, lapse, the loss of an object, a disdain in action... often indicate that the actor is working, in this social situation, according to desires, orientations, inclinations, injunctions and schemes of different action18 ".Lahaire, supported by psychoanalysis, affirms that in unique sociological frameworks, the action of some readers (especially in the case of literary texts) can resemble an "awake dreamer".
An analysis of Henrique's private collection finds that eleven of his books are in the historical sphere, while thirteen are fiction.Thus, while most of the books are fiction, Henrique understands that he is reading about history, since this is the issue that motivates him to read.According to Détrez (2004), it is understandable that not all readers can understand genre classifications established by institutions such as the school.Readers may use various criteria to classify their readings, even changing the traditional notion of genres.Therefore, according to Détrez, the notion of genre assumes that there is a command of a code, which is usually related to an individuals' schooling.Moreover, for Détrez (idem, p. 100), a novel can be defined as a crime, romance or historical novel, "according to the personal experience of reading, or the realm of the reading (school, free time, etc.), different genres can be assigned to the same book".
Therefore, as De Certeau stated (1994, p. 269), "the reader is the producer of gardens that miniaturize and congregate a world19 ".Henrique is a restless reader, who recreates and models the read text as he wishes.His stories are full of interpretations that reveal the relationship that he establishes with the reading, as he said, "there are some books that say Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil.But it wasn't Cabral, it was Colombus.Where is Brazil?Isn't it in America?"Note that in the world of reading practices, the logic of interpretations can go against the official history, and new versions of history can be constructed.
Nei's trajectory as a reader is different from that of Henrique.However, the oral stories related to the reading topics interweave oral and written culture and are also present in his appropriations.Nevertheless, when examining Nei's reading practices, it is essential to consider his involvement in different social spaces, his role as the secretary of the Gaucho Traditions Center, member of the Canguçuense History Academy, an elections monitor and city council candidate, practices that approximate him to the writing culture.When discussing his reading practices, Nei spoke about acquiring knowledge, from different cultures, "elsewhere" but also from "his place," of his history and his experiences.
Nei has lived with a written culture since childhood, even before going to school he learned to read from a newspaper that his father subscribed to.However, when talking about his taste in historical readings, he said that the stories his maternal grandfather told were his main motivation: "My grandfather had a way with description and to tell a story about any event.I heard many of his stories20 ".In many ways, the heard and lived stories, in the family context, intertwined with the stories that were read.One example, is the long statements about the tale "O maté de João Cardoso" [ João Cardoso's maté], a story he said that he has read and heard many times.When referring to this tale, which is found in Contos Gauchescos [Gaucho Stories], by João Simões Lopes Neto, he claimed to know the story of the main character very well, even before finding him in the pages of the book: "I think I have read all João Simões Lopes Neto's books, my grandfather got tired of telling me this story21 ".
In narrating the events surrounding the character of João Cardoso, a character in a short story, Nei was concerned to always reaffirm that the stories he knew orally were true, as was the writing of João Simões Lopes Neto.For him, the truth of the story could be established by a letter written by João Cardoso's brother to Nei's maternal grandfather: "João Cardoso really existed, he was my mother's cousin, my uncle once removed, and to prove it, I have a letter from his brother 22 ".In this case, as Lahire affirms (2002, p.98), the text and the experiences are strongly intertwined: "the 'world of the texts' is so intimately combined with the reader's experience that at times he may not be able to distinguish a personal memory from an analogous literary scene, as Maurice Halbwachs noted 23 ".
At one of his interviews, Nei was finishing reading the novel A casa das sete mulheres [The house of the seven women], by Leticia Wierzchowski.Commenting on the book, seeking to establish, from his experiences, counterpoints to the content read, he criticized a miniseries broadcast by Rede Globo, in 2003, based on the book.According to Nei: "the romantic part is a bit weak, but the whole book takes place in a unique environment 24 ".But, "the [TV] series has nothing from the original, if you read the book and see the miniseries you will see the difference 25 ".One of his criticisms of the miniseries concerned geographic issues.He said the true story takes place in rural areas of the Camaquã region, a place of vast planes as it is in the novel: "I went there once, its very beautiful, those big houses high up and no one around, I think the miniseries would be more authentic if it was there 26 ".Reaffirming the originality of the novel, based on his own experiences, he said: "I had a notion of the customs of the old ranches, my father and my grandparents worked in that region, and I saw, and my grandfather told us about life in those times.That's why I say that the environment contained in this book is very original 27 ".Once again, stories heard from his grandfather are a reference in his interpretation of the reading.
Nei demonstrated a facility in distinguishing different reading genres, appropriating from fiction stories and sometimes comparing them to truthful events, which, in a way, characterizes an aesthetic appropriation of the book read.However, 22 My translation: "João Cardoso has really existed, he was my mother´s cousin, my uncle, and I, to prove, I have a letter from his brother."23 My translation: "the 'world of texts' is so intimately mixed with the reader's experience that this sometimes may not be able to distinguish, as Maurice Halbwachs noted, a personal memory from a similar literary scene."24 My translation: "the romantic part is even weak, but this book goes on all in a unique environment."25 My translation: "the series is nothing original, who reads this book and saw the miniseries will see the difference."26 My translation: "I went once there, it is a very beautiful place, those big houses at the very top and not many people around, I think that the miniseries would be more authentic if it was there."27 My translation: "I had a sense of the customs in the old houses, my father and my grandparents worked in that area, and I saw, and my grandfather told us how was life like in those times.That is why I say that the environment contained in this book is very original." as Lahire (idem,p. 93) rightly affirms, it was certainly not the literary style that linked him to the stories he read, but the theme addressed.Thus, the fact that Nei refers to the style of the books can be linked to his time of schooling, as he is the reader with the highest levels of education among the individuals analyzed.
In the case of Tecla, what is seen is a reading of literary works in which she tends to think about her life with the help of fiction, as Petit suggests (2008, p. 78).She has lived with reading since childhood in her father's home, and her father and brothers are constantly mentioned in her reading memories.As an adult, marriage represented a break in her life and widowhood a moment of reunion, especially with reading, a practice that remained on stand-by for a few years.These events marked Tecla's trajectory and can be perceived subjectively as a guide to her reading appropriations.According to her statements, the theme of her readings' must correspond to her desire to know other places, to live through reading other experiences; her readings are thus also linked to a desire for knowledge.
Among the books and magazines she has read, Tecla referred to the Revista Cruzeiro: "There I got to know Rachel de Queiroz, she had a page in the magazine, and I liked to read it a lot.Because I really like to know about other ethnic groups, other customs and other things 28 ".Talking about these "other things" that she encountered through books and magazines, Tecla mentioned some books, such as O Caçador de Pipas [The Kite Runner], by Khaled Hosseini and O livreiro de Cabul [The Bookseller of Kabul], by Asne Seierstad, and said: "In these books, I got to know a little bit about Afghanistan and women's history".Among others book, she also mentioned Roots, by Alex Haley, which tells the story of a slave brought to the United States and details about his life in Africa and slavery in America, with which, according to Tecla, "it's possible to understand life there in Africa, where men only hunted..., that even black men themselves sold others as slaves 29 ".According to Petit (idem), this relationship with books, this travel in the reading searching for new experiences are unique characteristics of the reading act.According to Petit, to read is: To know the experience of men and women, from here or elsewhere, from our time or past times, transcribe in words that can teach us a lot about ourselves, about certain areas of ourselves that we had not explored, or that we had not been able to explore. 30(idem, p. 94).
28 My translation: "There I got to know Rachel de Queiroz, she wrote for the magazine, and I liked to read it.Because I like to know about other ethnic groups, other customs and other things."29 My translation: "it is possible to understand life there in Africa, where men only hunted..., that even black men themselves sold other ones as slaves."30 My translation: Knowing the experience of men and women, from here or elsewhere, from our time or past times, transcribe in words that can teach us a lot about ourselves, about certain areas of ourselves that we had not explored, or that we had not able to exploit.
The "discovery" of cultural practices of Eastern societies seems something that enchants her in a special way.Tecla repeatedly referred to the unique curiosities and issues of this culture, such as: "You know that one of these days I was reading a book and I found out why they use turbans in the desert!It's because of the sun31 ".On another occasion, she mentioned: "I asked my granddaughter: 'Do you know what language is the most spoken in the world?'She said: 'English'.And I said: 'No, it's Mandarin'.I know that because I read about these things32 ".
By knowing different sociocultural practices, or specific aspects involving other societies, Tecla can see herself occupying a differentiated space in the social world, which goes beyond the "place" of a wife and mother who has only completed the 5th grade, as she revealed: "My son's friend said: 'But your mother is a teacher!' I said: 'But I only went to the 5 th grade'.'Ah!That can't be!' 'And it's true'.But how do we learn things?By reading33 ".Based on reading that allows her "to go anywhere", to supply herself with knowledge and to live from another perspective, that perhaps one day she had dreamed of: "In my time, most girls studied to be teachers.But I didn't want to.I never wanted to leave home34 ".This is one of Teclas' appropriations in relation to the literary texts that she reads, a reading that aims to travel in the text's plot and also acquire knowledge.
Commenting on her reading practices, Tecla indicated the reasons that made her buy or like a book.It is noticed that the theme of the book is what most influences her choices.However, other aspects are highlighted, such as the author, whether it is a bestseller, or even a reference to something read by her father.In relation to the authors of the books she owns, it is observed that she makes some distinctions among them, although does not comment about each one's literary style.She cited as good authors, Josué Guimarães, Eça de Queiroz and Moacyr Scliar.Regarding Sidney Sheldon, she said: I have read some of his books, there was a book in Avon that said [it was written by] Sidney Sheldon, but it had nothing of Sidney Sheldon.It was a shameless writer who puts his name on the books but she is actually the writer.Because he is dead, I thought he had written it and did not finish and she had finished it, but that wasn't what happened.
When asked about the author's style, if it matches the literary style of Sidney Sheldon, Tecla merely said she is not a good author.
Tecla also said that sometimes her choices to buy books are based on the list of best-selling books published by Veja magazine.But it is the book's plot that will determine her opinion, as in the book Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, about which she concluded: "This book didn't do anything for me, and they told me: 'I fell in love with it.'It's a bestseller, but it had nothing for me".As Lahire (2002) observed, a reader appropriates from a text when it works with the schemes of her own experience, which certainly did not occur in relation to reading this book.Thus, when she reads, she tries to unveil her fears and doubts, visit other places, other cultures, get to know new stories, enjoy new stories, in literary stories, that give meaning to her life and bring her knowledge.
Unlike Tecla, who has an extensive reading practice, Ondina read the whole Bible five times, especially motivated by the belief in reading as an instrument of faith and salvation.Thus, the Bible and some prayer and meditation books are her literary preferences.Ondina's trajectory was marked by family religiousness, by submission to her mother-in-law after marriage and by a double work shift.Her intensive Bible reading began after the age of 60, when she was unable to work because of illness.
For Chartier (2001, p. 113), Bible reading has its own rules: "Reading, rereading, memorizing, shared reading, articulation between reading at home and reading in temple 35 ".Ondina's readings are characterized by these protocols: intensive reading, often with a purpose of memorizing.However, shared reading, as indicated by the author, takes another form in Ondina's case, not as group reading, but as an oral statement about the reading done, "I tell them about the Bible, he [her husband] does not like to read.I tell them what the Bible says and what it teaches.My grandchildren don't listen much, but I always say: 'It's necessary".Ondina's reading practices confirm, in some way, what Chartier (1994, p. 99) points out in relation to religious texts, referring to the eighteenth century and European society: "the religious texts and particularly the Bible, in Protestant countries, are the privileged foods of this [intensive] reading strongly imbued with sacredness and authority 36 ".In this practice of intensive reading of religious texts, marked by sacredness, it is possible to question how the appropriation of reading takes place.
Ondina, when reading, projects her experiences in the content of some Bible texts, or at times makes reading just a way to live her faith.Thus, the relationship between the meanings attributed to the reading and the schemes of individual experiences are perceived as a characteristic of her readings.When asked which book of the Bible she most liked to read, she replied, "Job and the Psalms, but they are all good 37 ".According to Ondina, Job is an example to be followed.In her words: "it is an example, because everything is declared there, he lost everything and 35 My translation: "reading, rereading, memory knowledge, shared reading, articulation between home reading and Bible reading in the temple."36 My translation: "the religious texts and the Bible in first place, in Protestant countries, are privileged foods of this reading [intensive] strongly imbued with sacredness and authority."37 My translation: "Job and the Psalms, but all are good."then recovered everything, and he was never against God.So we also have to be this way, if we are feeling bad, weak or sick, or do not have money, we can never say no, I cant' go on".Ondina also said that as often as she found herself in Job's situation, despite the difficulties, she has always kept her faith.Thus, the themes of the texts she reads are translated to the situations experienced in daily life, serving as a support and guiding her attitudes.
Concerning the book of Genesis, for Ondina, the main principle taught is related to respect for the day of rest.The double work shifts, that, after her wedding also happened on weekends, were something quite mentioned in her statements.In this regard, she said: "I respect what is in the book of Genesis, why read that and then not respect it?God made Sunday to rest, and then my parents said, 'What you do on Sunday, you throw away on Monday'.So we put that in our head and it never left 38 ".With these words, Ondina made it clear that upon appropriating the readings she revisited teachings and ways of being and living.Thereby, the guidelines received in her parents' home, as dispositions that were strongly internalized, formed the basis for the relationship established with the biblical text.
At times, she expressed difficulty in understanding the texts read, especially when it was not possible to make a direct approximation with her own experiences.The book of Job and Psalms are her favorites; she justifies her preference stating: "The best reading is the Psalms, it's easier.If I want to say a quick prayer, I read the Psalms".Several times she revealed a practice of intensive reading whose main objective is to strengthen her faith.Thus, the act of reading especially represents contact with the word of God.However, the understanding of some texts seems to be limited by a difficulty in understanding the content read: "I have to read it a few times and I have to think about it sometimes 39 ".Regarding this, she also said: "If I were younger, I would go to Bible study, but everything is very far in the countryside, I cannot go alone.I understand on my own, but at Bible study the pastor would help me understand faster".Although Ondina indicates that a deep understanding of biblical texts is not the aim of her readings, she lamented the fact that she has never attended Bible studies at her religious community -these meetings are usually led by a minister and are for not only reading but for studying the Bible.
When asked about the Old Testament, or about the biblical events that seem more important, Ondina did not have objective answers.She said she did not have a good memory and was not able to explain the content of her readings very well.Her statements demonstrate perceptions that are commonly widespread and grasped through contact with the religious community or family, and not necessarily acquired through Bible reading.It is observed that her reading practice is characterized by so-called religious appropriation of the Bible, a reading that does not question, criticize or doubt, in which the meanings attributed are related 38 My translation: "I respect what is in the book of Genesis, why read that and then not respect it?God made Sunday to rest, and then my parents said, 'What you do on Sunday, Monday you throw away'.So we put all of it on the head and then it will never leave."39 My translation: "I have to read a few times and I have to think about that sometimes."to unconditional devotion, and the reading is an act of faith.Ondina said several times that she is motivated by faith to read, which makes her accept the text read with devotion: "I read out of faith, and respect what is written.What is the use of reading without faith.It's useless.You must have faith in what you read".The meaning attributed to her readings differs from the other actors analyzed, who establish another relationship with the biblical texts.For Nei, for example, who is not accustomed to reading the Bible frequently, it is a book that requires a lot of knowledge: "To read an entire Bible you must be very persistent, because it is very detailed and there are many specific religious terms".As for Tecla, because she has difficulty understanding the texts, she does not read the Bible regularly: "I am not much of a Bible reader, I find the Bible a very difficult book.And then some interpret it one way and some another.I always found the Bible very complicated".Nei and Tecla demonstrate difficulties in this reading, because they seek to understand the content presented, seeking an ethicalpractical appropriation of the texts.
The same is true of Ismael, who said he read the Bible sporadically, and that his wife, who was very religious, read it every day and when she passed away he felt an obligation to continue this reading.However, he was not motivated in this practice and sometimes disagreed with some texts: "It is written in the Bible that the poor are the prisoner of the rich.Now look at this! […] So that means that money takes away honesty.The poor can speak the truth, with reason, but when another comes with money they are not honest, it destroys truth".At the end of his statement, Ismael said his wife used to accept everything she read in the Bible, and was not critical as he is: "she was Catholic, and had a strong faith!"From this it can be inferred that the readings of his wife, as well as Ondina's, were faith-based, and they can be characterized as religious appropriations of the Bible.
In Ondina's case, as in other cases, it is perceived that reading practices are characterized by ethical-practical appropriation, since she indicates in her statements, the content of the biblical books that allow an approximation with her experience, the Book of Job for example.However, when Ondina reads the Bible intensely, she does not seem to try to understand the content, but to be closer to God.So, the meanings that are attributed to the reading are aimed at a religious appropriation of the Bible, which has a certain specificity in relation to other readings of the Bible, given that she affirms that the reading in and of itself is a way to be with God, living the faith as a belief in a transcendental force.

FINAL REMARKS
The six actors analyzed reveal ethical-practical dispositions when reading, in which participation is assumed, an identification with the text, based on the reader's past or present experience (cf.Lahire, 2002, p. 92).Thus, singularities are observed that confirm that each individual appropriates the texts they read in a particular way, based on their individual experiences in the social environment, even in the case of a group with the same social background, with little variation in regard to education, age and forms of socialization.Accordingly, the reading practice of these actors ratifies Chartier's affirmation (2001, p. 116) that each appropriation presents resources and practices that are linked to the socio-historical identity of each reader.Lahire (2002, p. 95) states that in addition to language skills, the act of reading also depends on the inventory of schemes incorporated through lived social experiences.These two aspects can, in some way, limit the understanding and thus the access to the text.Still, for the author, these obstacles sometimes combine, but not systematically, with the main difficulty perceived among the less educated readers.Regarding the readers analyzed in this study, it is possible to observe the interference of these factors on the apparent mobility or on the limits of some readers when considering the comments they made about their readings.Tecla and Nei demonstrated a reading practice in which aesthetics are placed in evidence, by recognizing the cultural value of some literary works, or even when they look down on some authors and recognize the importance of others.Nei, for example, said that, when in school, he read "Alexandre Dumas' great novels" and also said that he would not read Jô Soares, because "he isn't even a good comedian".For Lahire (idem, p. 95), a strictly aesthetic reading is not absent from the discourse of lay readers, so that they can evoke the "beautiful style" or the "beautiful writing", "but this is certainly not what grabs them and connects them to the stories they read 40 ".
Therefore, Tecla and Nei's narrative analysis demonstrate a specific reading practice, but there is approximation between the two in some aspects, since they both raised aesthetic issues in their statements, even when making an ethical-practical appropriation of reading.Both readers, when talking about their readings, showed relative ease in summarizing the content read, commenting on the body of work, and at times, sought to expand their general knowledge by reading.
Among the cases analyzed, Nei is the reader who had the most schooling, and even left his parent's home to study.Tecla attended school up to the fifth grade, but she is the reader who lived for the longest time in other socialization spaces.After thirty years of age, she got married and went to live in the urban area of small cities, which enabled her to have new social relations that certainly provided her other socialization experiences, which were later incorporated into her reading practice, like the habit of going to the public library of the small city in which she lives.Nei also participated in spaces with strong circulation of written culture, like the Canguçuense Academy of History, and he worked for a long time as secretary of the Gaucho Traditions Center where he lived.These aspects show that both the schooling as well as the social relations that are responsible for the incorporated dispositions reveal specific modes of appropriation of texts, which provides readers greater control over what they read.
In the case of Henrique, Ismael and Antonio, it is also plausible to see a certain approximation of their reading practices.These readers demonstrated relative difficulty in summarizing the content of their readings, and made comments that favored some passages of the text over others, some times in a way disconnected 40 My translation: "but certainly it is not this what holds and connects them to the stories that they read" from the main theme of the book.Still, the relationship established between their life stories and the topic addressed in the texts seems to be the main and sometimes the only motivator of their readings.Thus, it is considered that the three reader's limited schooling, the limited readings of informational texts such as newspapers and magazines and the absence of significant socialization practices beyond the family context, may explain the very limited analysis of the contents of the books read.The same is also perceived in relation to the readings of Ondina, considering the specificities of her religious reading practice.Her extensive reading of the Bible is characterized as a religious appropriation of the Bible because it is reading in which the attributed meanings are related to unconditional devotion, motivated by faith that accepts the text without questioning.
It is worth noting that in the readings carried out by the people studied, the most common themes indicate an approximation to the actors' own experience, because they allow working with the schemes of their own experience in an imaginary way (idem).Thus, in many ways, the stories which are experienced and heard in family are crossed with the stories read, at times revealing a circularity between the oral and written, between what was heard and what was read, that is, oral practices do not seem to "harm" the reading.To the contrary, in some cases "storytelling" served as a motivation for reading practice.Therefore, it is considered that the experiences heard, lived, or even read beforehand are directly related to the modes of appropriation of the text.When referring to the notion of library, Goulemot (2001) affirms that the meanings attributed to the text are born from the memory of previous readings and assimilated cultural data.Thus, the analysis of the statements showed that the reading appropriation is linked to the exterior culture that works the text, based on a value system that constitutes the meanings that are assigned to the text read.Therefore the influence of socialization experiences in the uses and appropriations of reading among the readers analyzed is evident.
Considering what was presented and questioned throughout this text, it should be noted that working on an individual scale allows the researcher to view the variation in practices and preferences in a single social group.The analysis of the profile of six readers did not seek to generalize the reading practices in rural areas, limiting the analysis to a single cultural record, but to give visibility to the reading practices in this context, observing the specificities, variations and ambivalences of each social trajectory.Finally, reading as a cultural practice is permeated by social experiences that intervene in the modes and appropriations made by each social individual, being a creative practice that allows the production of an identity that goes beyond the pre-established models and permits the construction of meanings for their own life.