‘Oh, I’ve known a lot of Irish people’: Reading groups and the negotiation of literary interpretation

Abstract

Reading groups are an increasingly popular phenomenon in contemporary life, offering a space for readers to share literary and personal experiences. Although there is a growing body of research into reading groups, few studies have considered in detail the language used by readers as they debate the meaning of texts. This article offers a close analysis of interaction in reading groups, focusing on a meeting held by a book club in 2009. Employing a mixed-methodology approach, combining conversation analysis and communities of practice, this study analyses the reading group’s interaction in fine detail while also accounting for elements of group dynamics that influence the talk in this specific community of readers. I consider how members go about articulating their interpretations of the stories in the context of the reading group, focusing on the way that members present these interpretations as reasonable and valid. Three features of interaction are found to be important to this: category entitlement, the ‘oh’-preface and X then Y structures. I conclude that the interpretations offered in the reading group are necessarily socially situated and are inextricable from the interactive context in which they are produced.

‘It’s all red ink’: The interpretation of biblical metaphor among Evangelical Christian YouTube users

“…This qualitative account of biblical interpretation by lay Christians complements recent discourse analytic research on how non-professional readers interpret fictional texts (e.g. Allington, 2012;Lang 2010;Peplow, 2011;Whiteley 2011;see Swann and Allington, 2009 for a review of earlier work). Because this passage contains overt metaphorical language, it provides evidence of how readers interpret metaphor in real-world contexts, as opposed to the artificial contexts used in experimental studies (see reviews in Gibbs, 1994;Steen, 2007).…”

Reader response research in stylistics

“…Encompassing research in sociolinguistics, cultural studies, history and education, naturalistic approaches advocate the study of readers ‘in their usual environment, engaged in habitual reading behaviour’, with texts presented in their typical form, and readers interacting with texts and each other (Swann and Allington, 2009: 248). NSR emphasises reading as a social practice, carried out discursively in particular interactional contexts, including: reading groups (Benwell, 2009; Peplow, 2011, 2016; Peplow et al, 2016; Proctor and Benwell, 2015; Swann and Allington, 2009); social media platforms (Peplow et al, 2016; Rehberg Sedo, 2011); classrooms (e.g. Barajas, 2015; Barajas and Aronsson, 2009); mass reading events (Fuller and Rehberg Sedo, 2013) and historically through diaries, letters and publication records (Absillis, 2009; Halsey, 2009; Jardine and Grafton, 1990).…”

Readers’ interactions in an online reading group

“…For example, Cumming-Potvin (2007) conducted a case study with a grade-7 boy in Australia to investigate the role of scaffolding in literature circles to facilitate the development of critical reading skills, whereas Duncan (2009) explored the roles of reading circles to advance adult reading in formal adult education in London. Peplow (2011) used conversation analysis and the concept of communities of practice to analyse the face toface group interactions in a book club in south-east England in 2009. Levy (2011) looked into the connections between literature reading circles, developmental reading and basic writing in classrooms in a community college in New York, while Sanacore (2013: 117) reflected on how literature circles could be used 'as a vehicle for nurturing personal and critical responses to text'.…”