Literary enjoyment control at school

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to question the idea that the taste for literature would be merely an ability to be developed at school, independently of the students’ social conditioning. In addition to discussing the role of subjective readings of literature, we are going to analyze seven abilities registered in the Brazilian National Common Curricular Basis [Base Nacional Comum Curricular] that deal specifically with the appreciation of literature. In methodological terms, we draw on tools provided by Discourse Analysis due to the conception of this document as an utterance composed both of verbal materiality and an ideological conjecture behind. Although the document presents advancements regarding literary education at schools, the study points to a technicist treatment of fruition, aligned to the neoliberal postulates articulated with the educational prescriptions.