Discursive Threads and Literary Roles

The Dynamics of Interactions in an Online Book Club

Abstract

This study investigates the interactions within an online reading community on Facebook, the Clube do Livro, highlighting how varying roles and discursive threads influence the dynamics of dialogue. Analysis of the posts reveals that participants' roles, such as engaged readers, literary critics, and topic initiators, are not fixed and can shift throughout the interactions. The study emphasizes that the hierarchical classification of literary genres and the attribution of value to works generate intense and recurring debates, with authoritative voices, such as experts and professors, impacting the negotiation of meanings. It also demonstrates the complexity of meaning negotiations, the (im)possibility of reaching consensus, and the issuing of evaluative judgments about the works under discussion. The research reveals intense debates on literary hierarchies and the influence of the online environment, where recent posts receive more attention and personal discussions enrich the debates. The analysis of interactions, grounded in a socio-interactionist perspective, illustrates how language is used to argue, negotiate meanings, and reflect ideological and subjective diversity in literary evaluations, offering insight into the construction and negotiation of meanings within this discursive context.

Keywords: Interaction; Dialogism; Book club.