We clung to books: reading experiences in contexts of oppression in the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

Abstract

The paper aims to reflect on reading as an instrument of resistance and confrontation to contexts of oppression. Specifically, the proposal is inspired by and relates the book "The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society", by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, with studies on reading in the field of Library & Information Science, in search of the potential that the novel reveals about shared reading experiences as a way of dealing with a social reality crossed by wars and totalitarian political regimes. In epistolary format, the book reports the experiences of inhabitants of the island of Guernsey during the Second World War, when they lived under the Nazi occupation and found in reading a way to exist, resist and face the oppressions imposed on them. The reflection is theoretical and exploratory, with a qualitative approach, based on the reading of the book placed here as a locus of analysis and on the socio-psychic and symbolic contributions on reading developed by the Russian librarian Nicolas Roubakine and the French anthropologist Michèle Petit. As a complement, the paper articulates the considerations of Regina Marteleto, Nanci Nóbrega and Denise Morado, Jéssica Sá and Cláudio Paixão, and Gustavo Saldanha in the scope of Library & Information Science studies; here, the focus is on the acts of reading as a subject-reality interaction, a territory of symbolization and an instrument of resistance and collective critical awareness. The results point to reading as a central tool for characters to face the contexts of war and totalitarian political regimes, based on informational practices and symbolic connections built during the shared reading experiences that occur in the book. As final considerations, it reveals the act of reading as a practice that favors the crossing of crises, but also provides the awareness of oppressed social groups about the oppressions that surround them.