Dichotomization of reading-related interpretive patterns at the transition from school to university

Abstract

The article deals with the development of interpretative patterns related to reading, literature, and texts at the transition from school to university from a qualitative-reconstructive perspective. The focus is on the thesis that interpretive patterns increasingly break down into two distinct, separate domains during this phase (dichotomization thesis). These areas – private, informal reading and institutional, school-, university-reading – relate to different conscious and unconscious attributions, as a result of which different relevance and function are attributed to reading. I illustrate and discuss this phenomenon on the basis of empirical data (narrative interviews in a biographical longitudinal section, analyzed by means of social science hermeneutics).