Consumo de livros de entretenimento por adolescentes do sexo feminino: desvelando valores e projetos de identidade

Abstract

The book market has grown considerably in recent years, becoming an important part of the machinery of the economy. Because it is a commodity of cultural consumption, the book is equipped with individual symbolisms and meanings, since it can be used in various ways, and for many purposes. To understand the consumers of this market, we chose to use theories of personal values and identity, due to its centrality in the personality structure, in order to better understand the consumer and consumer behavior. This research aimed to identify values present in the consumption of entertainment books and describe how this consumption influences the construction and reconstruction of identity projects. For that, a qualitative descriptive approach was used, with adolescents between 12 and 17 years old in the city of Formiga-MG. For data collection, the in-depth interview was used In order to identify the values, they were adopted as proposed sources for the staging of a technique, called laddering, since for the identit y, an interview was chosen in the unstructured discipline with guiding themes (hedonic strand, identification with the book and identification as fandom).For the analysis of data, we analyzed content of the relations and closed grid based on the means-end chain in order to answer the 1st and 2nd specific objective (quantitative procedures) and analysis of thematic content, open grid, in order to answer the 3rd specific objective (qualitative procedures). There were three dominant levels: universalism, achievement, and hedonism. The interviews were occupied by personal groups and during the process of consumption of entertainment books. About the identity, three levels of formation of identity projects were identified, namely: hedonic strand, identification with the book and manifestation of identity. When analyzing the relationship between personal values and identity of the readers, it was verified that in addition to the valuesconsumption-identity, values have characteristics that 'replicate' in identity and vice versa. It is concluded that the main personal values that drive the consumption of entertainment books are hedonism, achievement and universalism and that consumption helps in the formation of anchored identity in books, starting with a hedonic slope (which represents pleasure in reading that initiates the creation of identity) for identification with the book (usually with the author and / or character, and it is through this identification that they take the 'anchors' to form their own identities) and finally have the security of manifesting their identity by having and exposing books, buying merchandises, publicizing the universe, participating in fandons and literary events.