This research examines the role of reading and book club attendance in the lives of Irish and American women’s fiction readers who actively participate in women’s book clubs utilizing mixed methodology, including ethnographic observation, participation in book club meetings, and in-depth narrative interviews. Women in Ireland and the United States used reading to develop a sense of self and to learn about the social world, as well as to construct their own identities, often in contrast to expected norms of feminine identity. Women in Ireland utilized reading and book clubs to develop knowledge and understanding; women in the United States were influenced to increase their status in order to potentially secure or retain a high-status romantic partner. At the same time, important key themes relating to social positionality and social networks, capital development, and the construction of identity were similar and central to women in both cultural environments. Reading was deeply entrenched in the identities of the women in this study and attending book clubs allowed them to continue engaging literature, construct identities, and gain knowledge about the world around them.
This research examines the role of reading and book club attendance in the lives of Irish and American women who read fiction and actively participate in women's book clubs. This research utilized mixed methodology, including ethnographic observation, participation in book club meetings, and in-depth narrative interviews. I examined how women developed gendered sexual identities through reading and participation in women's book clubs. Clear differences emerged in the different cultural contexts of each country, particularly as related to the role of reading in romantic relationships, as women in the United States were influenced to increase their status in order to potentially secure or retain a high-status romantic partner. At the same time, important key themes relating to the construction of sexuality were similar and central to women in both cultural environments. This research adds to our understanding of the sexual field by exploring the way women used reading and book club meetings to construct their own sexuality, as well as to increase their erotic habitus outside of the sexual field for increased erotic capital within the sexual field.
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