Mobilizing students’ interpretive resources: A novel take on subjective response in the literature classroom

Research on literature pedagogy still refers to traditional, text-oriented methods in practice (Todorov, 1982; Peirce, 1977), with occasional consideration for students’ subjectivity through reader-response exercises involving reading logs, surveys, or journals. When addressing subjectivities in individual and collective classroom contexts, researchers should direct attention towards the strategies students mobilize when reading. Owing to Sauvaire’s (2013) typology of interpretive dimensions in reading, this qualitative case study investigates patterns emerging from students’ written and verbalized expressions of their subjectivities in a 9th-grade literature classroom. The data point to conclusive results explaining pathways for interpretive strategies, which vary in group and individual settings.