Reading and spirituality: the experience of the pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the practice of reading during the COVID-19 pandemic and to study in more detail its meanings for the population of Córdoba, a large city in Argentina. Under the assumption that reading is a cultural practice which allows subjective work, we establish its relationship with spirituality. We build the object of study based on our own conceptual development as well as different types of empirical references: we review the WHO recommendations during the pandemic, we analyze the results of our own survey and we examine the meaning of data on reading during the pandemic through focus groups organized according to age variables. In this article we analyze two age segments: Young people (18-23) and adults (51-59). The survey information indicates that Reading ranks second among current cultural activities. The Bible is the most mentioned book; it is recorded in 10.5% of the responses. Self-help books take second place. As emerged from the focus groups, the use of subjectively oriented readings was stimulated by the existential crisis produced by the pandemic. This reinforces the thesis that reports increase in reading rates during confinement situations as well as the tendency towards the therapeutic turn to sacred texts in crucial subjective conditions.