Lesekreise als Orte des Wissens

Claudia Dürr analyses book clubs/reading circles from an epistemological perspective. Her contribution defines reading communities as “communities of practice” (Etienne Wenger). She illustrates how book clubs/reading circles operate while being embedded in a wider context – the literary field –, and how, at the same time, they design their own principles of valuation and rules of the game to make their experience of literature meaningful. In this regard, learning does not merely describe the acquisition of knowledge or of a verifiable competence in the sense of before/after, but rather a social process that has an impact on identity.