A leitura no século XXI: teoria, crítica e os desafios no ensino de literatura

Abstract

This article discusses the contribution of literary theory and criticism to the formation of contemporary readers and to the teaching of literature, especially in language and literature programs and in basic education. It is a theoretical and bibliographical essay based on Barthes, Eco, Candido, Brait, Chiappini, Delcastagnè, Schollhammer, Osman Lins, and Vargas Llosa. Its aim is to examine how literary reading can articulate form, history, pedagogical mediation, and human experience. The article argues that literature should not be reduced to authorial intention, to summaries of literary schools, or to auxiliary language exercises, since it requires interpretive cooperation, attention to verbal materiality, and awareness of the social relations that shape the production, circulation, and reception of literary works. It also questions rigid oppositions between classical and contemporary works, as well as between high literature and best-sellers, proposing reading criteria that consider aesthetic complexity, the market, digital media, and the democratization of the canon. The conclusion stresses that reader formation depends on consistent teaching mediation, plural repertoires, and institutions committed to slow, critical, and socially meaningful reading.