To read and talk about oneself in French : beginning to read and write can be a social act

Roselli, Mariangela

Bulletin des Bibliotheques de France
(ReLIS:doi:doibbf:v:1997:i:1:p:834)

Abstract:

When one begins to read as an adult and in a foreign language, the relation between oneself, the immediate family circle and the social environment becomes different. Insofar as it symbolizes and allows a way towards another condition of being and talking about oneself within the social world, beginning to read and write often coincides with practices of appropriations of word and action outside the family circle and the intimate sphere. So an increasing number of women, scarcely able or unable to read, make their entry into the school, by taking part in school help for their children, or in the district library where arranging the books and reviews after they left can become a pretext for them to manipulate the books and a prelude to its domestication.

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