Leitores Pentecostais: o perfil dos leitores missivistas da Revista A Seara(1956-1978)

Abstract

The history of reading gained centrality from the theoretical-methodological renewals of the discipline of History that occurred in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Historians became interested not only in normative elements, but also in the reception of rules; not only for the production and distribution of texts in their different formats, but also for the different modes of reception that occurred through countless forms of reading. The reader was, for a long time in history, a forgotten historical agent in studies that privileged texts to the detriment of those individuals who, in the always very subjective act of reading, were able to subvert the “reading protocols” thought by the authors and editors. With the interest of historical studies in “ordinary” men and women, who were on the margins of the centers of power, the reader appears as a target of interest to the historian. And not exactly that figure of the “cultured” reader or who was in the habit of reading by virtue of his profession. The intention was to understand how the men and women of the “povo” read, those people without much knowledge of reading, those who congregated in communities, such as those of faith, for example. It is in this strand that this work fits, whose source searched are excerpts from letters from the readers of the magazine A Seara, a periodical created in 1956 by the official editor of the Assembleia de Deus. Following the methodology advocated by important scholars of the history of reading, such as Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton and Michel de Certeau, in this research we tried to establish a profile of these missivist readers of A Seara through the letters that were forwarded to the magazine's editorial staff and published by the editors , remembered that the magazine A Seara is a privileged support for this type of study on the community of Pentecostal “Assembleianos” readers precisely because it was the first periodical of this church to open space for the readers' letters. The results point to a diverse reading audience and very interested in participating in the space opened by A Seara, but that had this communication channel with the periodical discontinued or reduced on several occasions, especially when those who were in charge of the magazine were groups linked to the maintenance of “assembleinas” traditions.