LECTEURS, ENFANTS D’ÉCHO: LIVRE, SENS, HORIZON
READERS, SONS OF ECHO: SHARING LITERARY EXPERIENCE

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at analysing, in a phenomenological perspective, how meaning occurs in literaryreadings as well as in literary discussions. The study takes as its empirical starting pointa seminar session, in which several academic readers have shared their experiences of thesame novel. It appeared that the constitution of the novel’s meaning was modified and continuedduring the discussion and, therefore, that the meaning of the novel was not availablebefore the discussion happened. Then, to understand what happened before the discussion,the inquiry relies on P. Bayard’s theoretical elaborations, which state that the solitary experienceof reading itself involves previous readings: the subjectivity of the reader is haunted bya plurality of texts, virtually involved in the process of reading of the novel. Therefore, thearticle intends to explore the notion of potential space, coined by Winnicott, and to define it asan intersubjective space, made of virtual subjectivities. Ultimately, to describe the way a newmeaning has arisen between the participants, the study relies on M. Richir’s phenomenology.The point, here, is to question the actual but unconscious interweaving of the subjectivitiesin the discussion. Thus, the study provides a deeper understanding of the creativity of the actof reading, by assuming that creativity cannot happen without a plurality of subjectivities,existing or virtual.

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