"Teaching to read" to the settlers of the pampa gringa: the newspaper and the formation of modern readers

Abstract

The starting point of this article is the examination of the late 19th-century periodical press as an agent of a reading policy aimed at cultivating modern readers. In this regard, we focus on the case of El Colono del Oeste, a weekly newspaper that circulated from 1878 to 1886 in the region of the agricultural colonies of Santa Fe, Argentina, which were established through the contribution of European immigration. We identify the central dimensions of how the newspaper represented its readers and established normative frameworks from which the incipient modern society of the colonies had to enter the literate universe. Methodologically, we approach the newspaper from two perspectives: first, as a discourse, examining its enunciative modalities, premises, and types of arguments, among other discursive operations; second, as a result of writing practices, taking into account its linguistic, graphic, and material features.