Abstract: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how concepts from the sociological and anthropological “paradigm of the gift” can be brought together with literary and cognitive theories, so as to provide a fruitful framework for assessing reading communities. By focusing on the rather under-researched interrelation between collective reading practices, genre, and gender, the article presents the key findings of a case study on a mixed-gender crime fiction book club in Athens. It provides a detailed account of the reading practices developed within the book club and outlines the basic dimensions of its context-specific “agonistic gift economy.” The study offers new insights on book clubs and extends the extant literature, which tends to overlook potential differences between diverse reading modalities within the same reading community, by subsuming collective reading practices under the univocal notion of “shared reading.” In this respect, by introducing concepts from the “paradigm of the gift” into the analytical repertoire of reading studies, the analysis aims at providing the beginnings of a new methodological approach to underpin research on reading communities in terms of the following dimensions: 1) the degree of entanglement of “givables” with identity and their inalienability; 2) the creation of debt relations, depending on the capacity of participants to reciprocate; 3) the formation of value standards for the valorization of reading practices and reader responses.

Keywords: collective reading practices, reading communities, “paradigm of the gift,” gift economy, genre, gender
Danai Tselenti obtained a B.A. and a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. Since December 2015, she holds a Ph.D. in Sociology also from the University of Athens. Her dissertation aimed at developing an understanding of the context specific modes of reading and participation of a crime fiction book club in Athens, while investigating at the same time their interrelations with gender

Danai Tselenti obtained a B.A. and a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. Since December 2015, she holds a Ph.D. in Sociology also from the University of Athens. Her dissertation aimed at developing an understanding of the context specific modes of reading and participation of a crime fiction book club in Athens, while investigating at the same time their interrelations with gender and genre. Her research interests lie in the areas of reading studies, sociology of reception, economic sociology, literary theories, cognitive theories and digital technologies.

 

Danai Tselenti – The “Paradigm of the Gift” (pdf)