From the reading experience to litterary education. Analysis of the emotional components in literature in infancy and adolenscence

Abstract

This research is based on the hypothesis that the most common literary educational practice places emphasis on the cognitive aspects of the reading process as well as on literature as a cultural and historical fact, leaving aside a main feature of the relationship between literature and the reader: the emotional component, the individual experience of reading. The main aim has been to analyse, from the opinions of teachers and students, how literary reading is experienced at school. The methodological option has been the ethnographic approach in educational contexts, with a qualitative interpretative design. The data have been obtained from a group of young philologists, a group of students of the Teachers Training Degree, both groups studying at the University of Zaragoza, and a group of teachers of literature in secondary schools in Aragon. By means of open interviews, discussion groups and semi-structured questionnaires, a large amount of descriptive data, as well as information about students’ and teachers’ beliefs and perceptions, have been obtained and then categorized to attain an interpretation. The initial hypothesis has been confirmed in general terms.