Book club meetings as micro public spheres: translated literature and cosmopolitanism

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze book group discussions on translated fiction in terms of micro public spheres. The paper explores the potentials of this perspective based on ethnographic data collected through participant observation with reading groups located across Britain. The discussion demonstrates the public sphere in operation beyond the confines of the book club meeting, where literature in translation provides fragments of cultural difference and where the aesthetic-affective mode facilitates open dialogue, contributing to critical-reflexive understanding. The article illustrates the interplay of the normative and the actual aspects of the public sphere through the tension between cosmopolitanism in contemporary cultural consumption and the entertainment value of essentialist representations. The contribution points to the nexus between translation and intercultural communication.