Working Group Reading Groups

Although there has been a lively debate about reading in research in recent years, the phenomenon of reading circles has been analysed only occasionally. However, it is precisely this phenomenon that we are interested in, as it allows and produces something beyond quiet and individual reading—and not least because shared reading and the exchange about it can potentially turn into a community-building and political practice. We would like to reflect on shared reading, on the specific experiences of readers who meet in academic and para-academic contexts, but also in reading circles that are situated in trade unions, political parties and the like.

The working group is a cooperation between the Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus (Arbeitskreis Politische Ästhetiken), the EXC 2020 Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective at FU Berlin and the ZfL.

Fig. above: © D.M. Nagu