ONLINE FIRST
published on August 26, 2025
Divya Dwivedi

https://doi.org/10.5840/ecoethica202582073
The Politics of Reading and the Possibility of Ethical Renewal
The Addressee Function
How can reading as an act and process be a possibility of philosophical and eco-ethical renewal? How do we theorize reading? What is our image of reading, and to what ¡°political imaginary¡± does it correspond? The long history of philosophy and theory of literature manifests not just the stages of the birth of the reader as a theoretically vital element but also competing theories and typologies of reading, reminiscent of the birth of ¡°man¡± and his ¡°rights¡± into racializations. The term ¡°addressee function¡± is proposed here to analyze the politics of reading that ensues when reading and readers become the object of theory. Which readers¡ªaccording to race, caste, and gender for instance¡ªare reflected or ignored in these theoretical images? The addressee function helps identify the hidden possibilities of theories of reading. It asks anew and finds new answers, in new situations, to the question ¡°Why read?¡±