A reading of the Argentinian publishing market of Babel - book magazine (1988-1990)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze in the section "Trafico. Una tribuna para los mercaderes", which was published in Babel, revista de libros between 1988 and 1990, how publishers and booksellers thought of themselves in a context of economic crisis and changes in readers' habits. Inquiring into the changes in the publishing sector, we will delve into the analysis that the column's editors made of the recent past of the book world, with special emphasis on the loss of Latin American foreign markets, the buying habits of the public, the dynamics in the commercialization of books, the emergence of new contents and textualities, and the situation of the graphic arts in the country. The actors, from different perspectives, closed a stage of the book world as they knew it.