“Psychology wasn’t such a big thing in the 17th century.” Exploratory reading of old poetry in Norwegian L1 upper secondary classes

Abstract

In this paper we examine exploratory group conversations about old poetry in Norwegian L1 classes in the academic program in upper secondary education. We examine what happens when students get to read and talk about the texts without being specifically introduced to their historical context beforehand. More specifically, we ask what interpretative challenges the texts pose to the students, to what extent the challenges are caused by lack of contextual knowledge, and how the students deal with them. On a more general level, the study raises questions about what it means to read text in context. The study’s background is, on one hand, to be found in a lasting tension in Norwegian L1 education, between cultural and historical knowledge and analytical skills, further enhanced by the national curriculum revision of 2020. On the other hand, the study is motivated by inadequate knowledge about how one can design literature instruction so that it enables the students to read classical texts in an exploratory way while also understanding the contextual premises for the texts and the reading. The dataset consists of transcripts from conversations about one contemporary and three classical poems in seven groups, each with four students. In the article, we analyze the conversations about two of these, while the remaining ones are used as background material. The analysis is focusing on what intertextual literacy the students demonstrate when dealing with the old texts, and specifically it examines how meaning is produced in the tension between historical context and contemporary context, and between the horizon of the text and of the reader. Based on the textual comprehension expressed in the conversations, our purpose is to discuss didactical implications for the teaching of classical literature and literary history. In the conversations, the students showcase active, interpretative work characterized by wondering, questioning, and interpretative hypothesizing. But at the same time, the conversations expose the students’ inadequate knowledge about historically situated textual conventions.

Keywords: literature teaching, literary history, poetry, exploratory reading, literary conversations, literary competence