Lo spazio della lettura. Riflessioni sociologiche sulla biblioteca pubblica e l’immaginario

This paper seeks to analyse the space of reading by specifically targeting an adequate environment: the public library. Here, reading can be grasped in its social dimension and its multiform nature. Given that reading can be understood within the context of the public library, the very act of reading can be considered a decoding exercise within the library itself. This article explains some interpretative approaches that regard the public library as a dense space by connecting heuristic possibilities offered through sociological knowledge and through the lens of the social imaginary. Moving from sociological implications of the public library and the awareness that the imaginary reconfigures and synthesizes relationships and meanings between physical and literary spaces, the research will analyze the visible and invisible aspects of the field in which the library can be subject to social representation, while still keeping its active character of producing meaning through literary spaces as well as through the exhibition and the organization of the library’s collections.