ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses explicitly on the demands of comprehending and interpreting literature and the role of inquiry in such learning. The problem space of necessity includes the resources readers bring, the demands of literary texts including generative tasks, and the features of robust learning environments that facilitate learning and the disposition to engage in such problem solving. Inquiry is defined as pedagogical practices that support learners over time in designing and carrying out investigations of ill-structured problems with decreasing direct supports from teachers. The resources readers bring are multidimensional and come both from individual attributes and experiences and from resources and repertoires from social networks in which the reader is routinely engaged. In addition to text and linguistic knowledge, readers bring both phenomenological and epistemological orientations that are relevant to dispositions that may be taken up in acts of reading. The chapter documents the work of literary analyses and provides illustrations of repertoires that readers, especially novice readers from ethnically diverse communities, bring to acts of literary interpretation. It further illustrates pedagogical implications of inquiry-based instruction that builds on this understanding of the demands of literary interpretation and scaffolding readers’ repertoires, including goals for identity development and wrestling.
