Literatura e Livros-Objeto: a experiência sensorial de leitura na “Coleção Particular”, da editora Cosac Naify

Abstract

The “Coleção Particular” – constituted by the volumes Primeiro amor, Bartleby, o escrivão, A fera na selva, Zazie no metrô, Museu do romance da Eterna and Avenida Niévski – is characterized by the publication of western literature classics in editions which the graphic project is part of reading experience and interferes in the way of experiencing the text. From this perspective, they can be considered as “artist’s books” or “object-books”, a concept used by Cosac Naify publishing house and adopted in this study as theoretical framework. So, understanding the book as a support that takes advantage of the object, that is, of its experimental resources, its unusual materialities and mainly of the articulation of these properties with verbal text in such a way that instigates the reader to a reading that appeals to senses, this research aims at elucidating how sensorial experience of “Coleção Particular” books reading collaborates and/or interferes in the interpretation of the literary text. The analysis considers the following graphical aspects: casing, book jacket, type of paper of cover and pages, texture, color, text layout on pages, cutting, binding and finishing. Setting up the relation among these aspects and what they suggest or aggregate in terms of sense to the literary text, it can be observed that the object-book presentes itself as an object with expressive potential that touches readers’ sensitivity, surprising, Moving and enchanting them. Besides, it demystifies the act of reading and its enjoyment in traditional ways because, in the relation among literary text, graphical project and reader, the necessity of another way of thinking to reach the meaning of the object is settled. Therefore, it is observed that the sensorial experience in “Coleção Particular” is confused with the reading of verbal text, and both end up amalgamating in only one experience, which collaborates for a meaning construction that amplifies/expands/dilates the literary text, transcending verbal space in such a way that form and content become inseparable for the apprehension of the overall sense of the object. Finally, we highlight that the sensorial experience of reading is always a one-of-akind experience for each reader, according to his/her sensitivity, in such a way that the Reading presented in this study is also a personal reading of the volumes.