The Discourse of Reading Groups: Integrating Cognitive and Sociocultural Perspectives [Hardcover]

Of interest in their own terms as a significant cultural practice, reading groups also provide a window on the everyday interpretation of literary texts. While reading is often considered a solitary process, reading groups constitute a form of social reading, where interpretations are produced and displayed in discourse. The Discourse of Reading Groups is a study of such joint conceptual activity, and how this is necessarily embedded in interpersonal activity and the production of reader identities. Uniquely in this context it draws on, and seeks to integrate, ideas from both cognitive and social linguistics.

The book will be of interest to scholars in literacy studies as well as cultural and literary studies, the history of reading, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, digital technologies and educational research.

1. Introduction: Reading Groups and the Study of Literary Reading  2. Social Reading and the Cognitive Stylistics of Literary Texts  3. Mimetic Reading and Reader Identities  4. Co-reading and the Contextualisation of Response  5. Reading Groups and Institutional Discourse  6. Reading Online  7. Conclusion: Developing an Integrated Analysis of Reading Group Discourse

The Discourse of Reading Groups is a study of such joint conceptual activity, and how this is necessarily embedded in interpersonal activity and the production of reader identities.

David Peplow is a Lecturer in English Language at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. His research interests include discourse analysis, stylistics, and health humanities.

Joan Swann is Emeritus Professor of English Language at the Open University, UK. She is a sociolinguist with a particular interest in the analysis of spoken interaction.