Negotiating Literary Meaning. Communication in Reading Communities

Reading communities meeting face-to-face (reading groups) or online (reading forums) agree to read a book (mostly fiction) within a given period of time and then come together to discuss it. During these avid talks and debates processes of understanding, interpreting and evaluating of literature come to life. The project at hand will take a close look at ways of negotiating literary meaning by examining reading groups and reading forums in action. At a microscopic level we will be dealing with the different aspects of literary and popular fiction readers actually discuss, what challenges they meet, what gratifications they seek, and what means and strategies of communication they use; at the macroscopic level we will be taking a close look at the influence of literary tradition as represented by the canon (reading-lists as well as readings), and contemporary literary discourse in the media (book reviews, interviews). The collection and evaluation of qualitative data will be carried out in two steps: based on the findings on reading groups (face-to-face) we will look into online reading forums. A comparison of the two different forms of communication on books will focus on the participants and their motivations, and on the structure, content and context of the discussions themselves. Reading groups will be selected according to their location (Austria), their working language (German), their focus of reading (fiction), the members professional background (no literary professionals of any kind), gender (mixed groups), and age (adults, wide range of age). Online forums will be selected according to their reading matter (same book or similar in genre to a book read by one of the face-to- face groups). The online forums working language will have to be German, too. The data will be compiled through participatory observation of appr. 36 book discussions (face-to-face and online) and standardized questioning of the reading group members and forum participants. In Austria and Germany, a study on reading groups has not been done before although reading communities are becoming increasingly popular. The project will provide considerable contributions to literary and book studies as well as to reading research because it aims to bring together the literary and the social aspects of reading. It will describe the nature, genesis and dynamics of the reading communities in question, and it will generate a classification of the different ways reading communities evaluate literature. The results will also give answers to core questions frequently asked in literary scenes, among literary critics, educational experts and in the publishing industry: What is needed to stimulate or create a vibrant literary environment and atmosphere and what is needed to keep or make reading fiction (more) valuable to readers?

Talking about books broadens knowledge and pleasure of reading Book clubs or reading circles are becoming increasingly popular. Whoever meets with like- minded people in a reading circle ideally gains double pleasure: in reading a book and in the following collaborative exchange on what has been read. A new study has shown that members of a reading circle gain profit from the debate even if the reading matter itself did not meet their taste. For the first time in German speaking countries researchers from Universität Klagenfurt, Austria studied privately organized reading circles. In the course of the research project Negotiating Literary Meaning. Communication in face-to-face and online reading communities (funded by FWF) three reading circles were accompanied during six monthly meetings in a row. The aim of the explorative study was to show how readers come to terms with what books and literature have to offer. In a second step, results were compared to online reading forums. Reading circle members are heavy readers, i.e. they read 18 books a year or more. Talking about books makes reading circles communities of practice (E. Wenger), who generate knowledge as well as strategies of knowledge acquisition. They attend to reviews, to the authors biography, to readings they find on the internet. They especially attach importance to the choice of reading matter: a book has to fit to the groups profile, must not be too voluminous, and should be affordable. A circle that behaves like a quartet of literary critics is more likely to be geared to the literary canon and current literary debates than an international ladies round table, whose members prefer to compare literature to experience of life, or a rural salon, whose members are friends and share various cultural activities. Reading circles that work well meet for many years with hardly any alteration. Literature offers a specific form of aesthetic experience. But even more important for reading circles is literatures function as a means of sense-making and generating meaning. In discussing characters, motifs, actions, content, members compare their current understanding with their previous reading experiences. Primarily though, readers compare literary worlds with their own personal and professional lives. This happens within a social process that affects the identity of the group as well as that of the single member. In comparison, online discussions about books are more purposeful; participants change more often. The social fabric of online reading communities is different from that of reading groups. Online, the focus is set on individual reading experiences and the text itself, hardly contextualizing them on a broader level. In addition, there are specific forms of communication to compensate for the distance in space and time, and the lack of familiarity amongst participants. Emoticons signalize politeness and mitigation; critical remarks are placed from a strictly subjective point of view. Be it face-to-face or online, contemporary reading communities bring the seemingly lonely habit of reading books back into its social surroundings, thus linking it to historical models such as 18th century reading societies.