Literary Reading and Writing at the University: Challenges and Proposals for the Articulation of a new Space for the Development of Literary Practice in University Higher Education

Abstract

The practices of reading and writing have suffered, in recent years, profound transformations in response to the changing post-industrial world we face as teachers. The expansion of the literary object to new spaces of cultural expression, is reviewing concepts such as canon, beauty, genre, the role of the reader, as well as the reformulation of what it means to read and write literature in a university context. Regarding this, we consider whether the university has adapted itself to these varied cultural and historical scenarios in order to be able to form effective readers and writers in the new cultural context and more specifically in the literary one. We should probably review our mediating role in the classroom so we can productively articulate the reading and writing expectations every student has and the academic offer of the university. In this paper we will deal with the main problems concerning the reading and writing of literature at the University; and we will draft a proposal for a curricular workshop articulating these two activities, while integrating the specific didactic contributions on the teaching of literature, and disciplines such as literary theory, semiotics and criticism.