Reading as a language event of the self: In conversation with Bertau, Lipari, and Karsten

Abstract

This commentary explores selected ideas presented in the special issue on language and the self and considers them in terms of reading. Bertau’s notions of the in-between and sharedness, Lipari’s description of the polychronic, polymodal, and polyphonic qualities of language events, and Karsten’s description of the cross chronotope relationships between self-positions during writing are discussed. Using a case analysis of a young child’s wordless picture book reading, this set of ideas is used to illuminate reading as a dialogic, relational event of the self, one that depends on the use of social imagination as a critical part of the meaning-making process.