Allington, Daniel
(2011).
‘It actually painted a picture of the village and the sea and the bottom of the sea’: Reading groups, cultural legitimacy, and description in narrative (with particular reference to John Steinbeck’s The Pearl).
Language and Literature, 20(4) pp. 317–332.
Full text available as:
Abstract
This article proposes a form of research that integrates reader study with textual analysis. Its purpose is to investigate the social production of literary value, potentially providing cultural sociology with a systematic means by which to study the formal features of texts in relation to their social significance: a means arguably required by (but not necessarily supplied in) the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of reading group (or ‘book club’) discussions reveals an association between descriptive writing, cultural legitimacy, and a focus on the form, rather than the content, of fictional texts. In order to understand this association, the analysis then turns to two paragraphs from John Steinbeck’s The Pearl (2000 [1946]), which had been read by most of the groups involved and which many group members had referred to as involving ‘description’. It is argued that a long-standing tradition of association between descriptive writing and visual art has served as a resource both for consumers and for producers in distinguishing literature from popular fiction.
Item Type: |
Journal Item
|
Copyright Holders: |
2011 Daniel Allington |
ISSN: |
0963-9470 |
Project Funding Details: |
Funded Project Name | Project ID | Funding Body |
---|
Not Set | Not Set | AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) |
|
Keywords: |
book clubs, description, emic categories, legitimate culture, narratology, The Pearl, reading groups, reception, sociology of literature, Steinbeck |
Academic Unit/School: |
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) |
Research Group: |
Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET) |
Item ID: |
30478 |
Depositing User: |
Daniel Allington
|
Date Deposited: |
03 Jan 2012 13:36 |
Last Modified: |
06 Mar 2017 20:17 |
URI: |
http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/30478 |
Share this page: |
    |
Metrics
Altmetrics from Altmetric | Citations from Dimensions |
| |
Actions (login may be required)