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Reading As Assemblage: Intensive Reading Practices Of READING AS ASSEMBLAGE: INTENSIVE READING PRACTICES OF ACADEMICS by SHARON MURPHY AUGUSTINE (Under the Direction of Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre) ABSTRACT This interview study investigated academic readers‘ reading practices using Deleuze and Guattari‘s concept assemblage to produce language and images of reading that recognized the complex relations among texts, people, places, ideas, and memories. The following two questions propelled inquiry and analysis: 1) How do reading practices function as a force that assembles complex relations of texts, people, places, ideas, and memories in surprising and productive ways? 2) What alternative reading practices are possible by theorizing reading through these relationships? This inquiry specifically chronicled how the participants in this study used books to do things. Reading was not, therefore, a solitary, passive endeavor, but an active, social engagement in creating their worlds. The production of a list of prescriptive reading practices that others could duplicate was not the goal. Rather, Deleuze and Guattari‘s (1980/1987) assemblage aligned within larger conversations among new criticism, reader response, and socio- cultural theories of reading. Specifically, Sumara‘s (1996) theory of reading worked with the theories of Deleuze and Guattari to describe a wider variety of reading practices than are commonly found in school settings. Participants provided language to describe intensive reading, reading practices that altered subjectivity, and descriptions of surprising reading experiences. Deleuze and Guattari‘s concepts and participants‘ experiences produced descriptions of reading as an active, surprising, and productive practice. INDEX WORDS: Education, Reading, Deleuze, Guattari, Sumara, assemblage, order-words, incorporeal transformation, commonplace location, flow experience, adult literacy, lifelong literacy, school, qualitative interview research, Writing as a method of inquiry, data analysis, coding, reading practices, poststructural theory. READING AS ASSEMBLAGE: INTENSIVE READING PRACTICES OF ACADEMICS by SHARON MURPHY AUGUSTINE B.A., Agnes Scott College, 1990 M.Ed., Georgia College, 1993 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Sharon Murphy Augustine All Rights Reserved READING AS ASSEMBLAGE: INTENSIVE READING PRACTICES OF ACADEMICS by SHARON MURPHY AUGUSTINE Major Professor: Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre Committee: Ronald Bogue Mark Faust Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2010 iv For Glenda May Rogers For teaching me how to live, love, and persevere. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Deleuze (1990) said, ―We need both creativity and people‖ (p. 176). Here‘s to my people: To Bettie St. Pierre for helping me to imagine possibilities—her words of encouragement early in my graduate career began assembling this PhD. To Mark Faust for his book club class and passion for discussing reading in all its complexities. To Peter Smagorinsky for his generosity, mentorship, and careful scholarship. To Ron Bogue whose teaching and scholarship shepherded me across many plateaus of thought. To my participants for sharing their time, ideas, and stories and providing many variations on how to create an academic life. To Belita Gordon whose support and belief in me never wavered. To Peg Graham, Sally Hudson-Ross, and Steve Bickmore (my teaching soul mate) for helping me love college teaching as much as high school teaching. To my writing group—the best colleagues and friends ever—Tara Star Johnson, Amy Kay, Melanie Hundley, and Christine Malozzi. To Sterg Botzakis who knows that this all started after Bogue‘s class over fried chicken (and Lobster) at the Georgia Center. To Amy Davis—my writing partner—I could not have finished without our conversations and your support—this is the only sentence that she has not read. To Nancy, Martha Ann, Rachel, Sarah—my sisters—and Hailey, Janie, Shyla, and Lawson—my nieces and nephew—I wish for each of you the courage to follow whatever dreams you cannot even now imagine. To Mike Augustine—my best friend, love of my life, and my rock—thanks for always believing in me. To Kathleen May Augustine—the joy of my life—the inspiration that kept me going. My years in Athens changed my life, but you altered my life so sweetly and completely. I cherish my Mommy title above all others. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER 1 READING UNDER A NEW DESCRIPTION ..................................................1 Background of the Problem .........................................................................3 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................6 Research Questions ......................................................................................7 Plugging into Reading Theory .....................................................................7 Deleuze and Guattari in Education: Jumping off Points ............................10 A Map ........................................................................................................13 2 READING AS ASSEMBLAGE ......................................................................14 Part I: Why Deleuze and Guattari? ............................................................15 Part II: How Does Sumara Plug into Deleuze and Guattari? .....................51 3 ASSEMBLAGES ALL THE WAY ACROSS ................................................61 Part I: A Chronological Description of the Study ......................................64 Part II: The Interview Assemblage Continues ...........................................73 Part III: Reading and Writing as Data Analysis.........................................80 Summary or Making Order Out of Chaos..................................................94 4 INTENSIVE READING: USING BOOKS TO DO THINGS ........................97 vii Part I: Creating a Language of Assemblage ..............................................98 Summary ..................................................................................................110 Part II: Reading as Forces and Associations of Assemblages ................111 Summary ..................................................................................................131 Part III: The Unintended Consequences of Reading Assemblages .........132 Summary ..................................................................................................152 5 READING, ASSEMBLAGE, AND METHODOLOGY ............................153 A Summary of Intensive Reading ............................................................154 Outside the Art of the Possible ................................................................157 Revisiting the Assemblage .......................................................................162 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................163 APPENDICES A Original Interview Guide ...............................................................................178 B Leighton Interview Guide ..............................................................................179 C Davidson Interview Guide .............................................................................180 D Beaufort Interview Guide ..............................................................................181 E Scott Interview Guide ....................................................................................182 F Kerrey Interview Guide .................................................................................183 G Lancashire Interview Guide ...........................................................................185 H Marsh Interview Guide ..................................................................................186 I Lawrence Interview Guide .............................................................................187 J Larkin Interview Guide ..................................................................................188 K Example Memo after Interview with Lawrence ............................................190 viii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Chronology of Interviews ..................................................................................195 Table 2: Timeline of Study ..............................................................................................196 1 CHAPTER 1 READING UNDER A NEW DESCRIPTION The only presents I give my niece Hailey are books—birthdays, Christmas, and any just-because occasion. When she started first grade, she excitedly told me about a new "game" that she had learned. A two sentence story followed about Jack going to the grocery store. Then, Hailey’s speech became very deliberate, "Okay, now, Aunt Sharon, you have to answer: 'Did Jack A) go to the store for food or B) go to the store for a hammer or C) not go to the store.’" I was stunned and quite sick that Hailey, who has read so many stories, delighted in creating different accents for characters, and enjoyed inspecting the illustrations in her books so carefully had been indoctrinated into the multiple choice “game” so early—a game
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