Reading promotion, conflict negation and peaceful conviviality: the uses and hopes for literary education in Chile

ABSTRACT

This article inquires into what sort of socioemotional education and conviviality are produced when pleasurable literary reading is encouraged in neoliberal cultures. We critically explore the celebration of reading for socioemotional education as it is produced in official government documents distributed to schools in Chile. Assisted by Sara Ahmed’s conceptualisation of the cultural politics of emotions and Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic theory, we highlight how literary reading is promoted as a tool to manage difference and resolve conflict. We relate the hopes set on reading to a celebratory cult of happiness in which structural injustices are erased.

KEYWORDS:

• Literary education
• socioemotional education
• neoliberalism
• conflict
• Chile

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 By literary fiction we mean written pieces of fiction, imaginary and not based on facts stories in written form.

2 This study has shed considerable doubt on this claim: (Panero et al. 2017).

3 Eleven months after October 2019 and the start of the Chilean Social Revolt, the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) had opened 6 judicial causes to sue the state for the murder of 6 people at the hands of the police and military, while also another 22 have died in the context of revolts. The INDH has also supported other 2493 legal cases: for unlawful coercion; unnecessary violence; torture; abuse; serious injuries; attempted murder; illegitimate constraints; unjustified shooting, and obstruction of justice (to see this and more go to https://www.indh.cl/bb/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Reporte-12-diciembre-VF.pdf, INDH, September 17th, 2020).

4 Multiple phrases and actions made by politicians have caused indignation. For example, after people complained about the subway fare hike during peak hours, the Minister of Economy said “Anyone who gets up early will be helped. Anyone who leaves earlier and takes the subway at 7 in the morning has the possibility of a lower rate.” (to see this and more phrases go to “Las incendiarias frases del gabinete de Piñera que detonaron la crisis social” El Desconcierto, October 19th, 2019).

5 “Emotion and Literary Repertoires for Children” (Fondecyt 11180070).

6 Curricular Guidelines from 7^th to 10^th Grade

7 Other Indicators of Education Quality

8 The Community that Reads

9 National Reading Plan

10 All translations have been made by the authors.

11 A form of protest in which protesters make their discontent known by hitting pots and pans to make noise.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by ANID (Fondecyt grant number 11180070 and PIA-CIE grant number 160007).

Notes on contributors

Macarena García-González

Macarena García-González is researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Educational Justice of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She has a PhD in Cultural Studies and Social Anthropology from Zurich University, Switzerland, and a master in Cultural Studies from the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. She has authored The Stories We Tell Children about Immigration and International Adoption (Routledge, 2017) and Enseñando a sentir. Repertorios éticos en la ficción infantil (Metales Pesados, 2021), as well as several articles and book chapters on literature, culture and education. She has been research fellow at the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Germany and at the Institute for Cultural Studies of Graz University in Austria. She currently leads the research project "Emotional and Literary Repertoires for Children" (Fondecyt), and is associated researcher of the project “BioSocioCultural Inclusion. Challenging Homogeneity in Educational Spaces” (PIA-CIE).

Valentina Errázuriz

Valentina Errázuriz is an researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Educational Justice of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She has a PhD in Social Studies Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, USA, and a master in Social Studies Education from the same university. She has authored articles and book chapters on gender and political education, high school feminism and affective repertoires. She is an associated researcher of the project “BioSocioCultural Inclusion. Challenging Homogeneity in Educational Spaces” (PIA-CIE).