Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Theorizing Passionate Love in Reading: A Social–Psychoanalytic Theory

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 4; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15544800903184384

1554-4818

Gail Boldt,

Innovative Education and Learning Practices

This paper presents a theoretical framework for considering the power of passionate attachment in reading. Drawing on observations of a 10-year-old boy who expresses strong, physically and emotionally experienced love of Japanese manga (comics), the author melds social activity theory with psychoanalytic understandings of attachment to consider the role of bodies and emotions in literacy practices. The author maintains that bringing images of the affectively charged, desirous body to literacy studies should prompt us to broaden our framing of literacy events and to consider the ethics of what counts in our relationships with children who are our students or research subjects.