Discipline and desire in spaces of reading

Dominant visual narratives of reading tend to portray readers as solitary individuals, deeply immersed in reading a single text in a quiet, undisturbed spot. Yet, reading is both social and solitary and takes place in different kinds of spaces, not all quiet and not all undisturbed. This visual essay examines how reading as everyday practice is situated in social spaces and is appropriated by individuals as well as members of a collective for its own uses. In this visual essay, we draw on our ethnographic research of reading to examine the connections between space and reading as social practice. We focus on reading activities in school and particularly on the space of the school library, historically associated as a space for reading, to understand not only the kinds of reading that occur in a space meant for such purposes but also how students negotiate such spaces and practices for their own purposes.