ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationships between formal, institutionalised literary study discussions of novels and their counterparts in informal book group examples. Book group conversations in this book offered complex consideration of novels, multiple narratives and themes. They progressed differently from shared reading in formal education, but made similar analytic achievements without the jargon of literary criticism and within a recursive and affiliative structure of talk. Which qualities of informal book talk might provide effective pedagogic resources for considering literary narratives in formal education? To what extent might the mode of elaboration found in reading group discussions be desirable in formal education, and to what effects for developing students’ capacity for analysis but also to support their enjoyment of reading? Is it possible for Pedagogic Literary Narration in institutional settings to achieve the apparent naturalness of book group conversations? Can it do so strategically to support learning goals and student pleasure in shared reading? The chapter identifies how understanding how reading group conversations work towards their achievements can extend the disciplinary repertoire of teaching for shared novel reading, and support student access by extending the language codes of literary study.
