Participation, Perplexity and Plurality: Exploring the Shared Reading of a ‘Difficult’ Poem

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore how adults in a community shared reading group discuss the notoriously difficult poem ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream’ by the American poet Wallace Stevens. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s notion of action, we explore how participants negotiate the poem, actively constructing meanings from their shared personal experiences rather than simply reading off meanings contained in and bounded by the poem, a text which continues to be divisively contested by literary ‘experts’. In enabling them to act collectively in such a purposive and immersive fashion, shared reading, we suggest, constitutes a public space where participants experience the plurality that Arendt argues is central to the human condition. At a time when tolerance of difference has been compromised by divisive politics, a focus on the collaborative aspect of shared reading contributes to a greater understanding of the role it can play in supporting inclusive, participatory arts practices in communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Shared reading
• Arendt
• action
• plurality
• community
• difficult poetry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Arendt uses ‘men’, and the pronouns ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’, in her writing in English to refer to human beings, rather than one specific gender. As Nixon (2015) points out, when Arendt wrote in German, she used the non-gendered Menschen, rather than Männen.

2. Due to obvious constraints, our critical survey of the poem here is necessarily brief. Readers desiring a more comprehensive summary could do worse than consult Glen MacLeod’s (2016) edited collection, Wallace Stevens in Context.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Jones

Susan Jones is Associate Professor of English in Education at the School of Education, University of Nottingham

Kevin Harvey

Kevin Harvey is Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the School of English, University of Nottingham