Medium and management of the canonical and associated spaces in collaborative platforms Wattpad and Widbook

• Grant number: 16/02301-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Salazar Salgado
• Grantee: Amanda Aparecida Chieregatti
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Considering the history of book production before the invention of Gutenberg and its replacement by microfilm in great libraries (CHARTIER, 1998; Darnton, 2010), there is a current trend towards the opposite direction: books need to get out of the screen for the paper to be legitimized. While some say that books will end, given the ease offered by reading platforms, which offer new support for the writing culture, freelance writers, publishing through online platforms, need recognition offered by printed books. With this hypothesis, we seek to explore the concept of book (RIBEIRO, 2011) to discuss the literary discourse, defining two reading platforms as object of study: Wattpad and Widbook. We tried to observe how each of the discursive communities that reading platforms evoke relate to the texts offered. Seeking to understand the influence of medium (MAINGUENEAU, 2011) on how the material is received by readers, how it affects the work of writers, and how this editorial mediation form highlights canonical space compared with the due administration of the associated space (MAINGUENEAU, 2012): reading these platforms allow - and even demand - that writers be responsible for the management of their production.