‘You are what you read’: beside a book, beside a self

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay addresses the topic of reading—and focuses on non-professional readers who resort to books as an escape from the burden of being oneself and as a means of self-care. Think of people who do not want to discuss their personal dissatisfactions or concerns, and instead simply resort to dealing with those negative feelings by reading books or watching television. Scholarly and political emphases on consciousness, liberal agency, and speech acts have made it difficult to formulate theories about one’s desire to break free from one’s identity, and from the familial, social, political, and historical duties associated with it. Our culture of confession and openness also ignores the wishes of those who want to remain silent and private. By analyzing various moments and scenes of reading in literary works and in real-life examples, I can begin to speculate about a humanism based on silence, vicariousness, and suspended agency.