Multiple readers of the same text will have subjective and unique interactions, connections, and experiences that are unlike those of any other reader. “Feelings are evoked not just by the text, but by the text combining with the reader’s prior experience with life and literature, as well the reader’s present mood and purposes” (Kane, 2011, p. 17) Louise Rosenblatt’s groundbreaking work in Literature as Exploration (1938/1995) and later refinement of her original thesis in The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978), rejects the idea that there is a single, fixed meaning inherent in a literary work as was common thought in the formalist theories of New Criticism, but rather that the individual creates meaning through a transaction with the text …show more content…
But Rosenblatt understands there can be a “wide range of referential and affective responses that might be activated, and the reader must manage these responses” (1978, p. 75). With the idea that the reading process is a transactional relationship, she explains that a reader’s response to the text must be grounded in the text itself. She states, “When we turn from the broader environment of the reading act to the text itself, we need to recognize that a very important aspect of a text is the cues it provides as to what stance the reader should adopt” (1978, p. 81). Rosenblatt emphasizes that she does not “claim that anything any reader makes of the text is acceptable. Two prime criteria of validity as I understand it are the reader’s interpretation not be contradicted by any element of the text, and that nothing be projected for which there is no verbal basis” (1978, p. 115). She explains that some readers are more informed than others and that experienced readers use past literary experiences, responses, syntheses, and assimilations as subliminal guides to organization and the background in which to recognize something new or original in the text
In the introduction of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster sets the scene for the upcoming chapters by pointing out crucial literary devices. Through several references, it is further explained how memories, symbols and patterns help to create broader understandings throughout literary texts. Foster continues by stating that the usage of these devices establishes the advanced readers from “the rest of the crowd” (xxvii).
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
Joyce Carol Oates' message of life and transitions is best understood when the reader brings his or her interpretation to meet with the author's intention at a middle ground. This type of literary analysis is known as Reader Response. In Reader-Response, the emphasis is placed on "the idea that various readers respond in various ways, and therefore [the] readers as well as authors 'create' meaning" (Barnet, et. al. 1997). In this story of life passages and crucial events, it is imperative that the reader has a solid response to Oates' efforts in order to fully comprehend the message. Literature is a combined meeting between the intentions of the author and the reaction of the reader.
When reading someone else's work you need to be certain that you read between the lines. Author's, at times, will attempt to distort information in order to make their beliefs more prominent. In order to avoid this disinformation, you have to learn the difference between denotations and connotations and facts from opinions. Furthermore, you'll have to recognize figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, which can incite specific feelings onto readers.
All people think differently, and see things in different ways. Seymour gross wrote “Solitude, and Love, and Anguish”: The Tragic Design of The Scarlet Letter. Gross’s article that experience, understanding of tone, and deep thought, play a vital role when analyzing a novel, or any piece of writing.
Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen. Literature: the Human Experience. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. Print.
This theory is not only credible in literature, to discuss the intentions of an author, but is also effectively used in film, to discuss the intentions of a director. One benefit of this theory is that it can help with many literary problems. For example, Freudian critics not only “stress distinction between the conscious and the unconscious”, but also uncover “the unconscious motives of characters” as well as see “an embodiment of classic psychoanalytic conditions” within literary works (Barry 101). By drawing connections between concepts in the text, we are able to further enrich our understanding of the work and, if we plan to discuss it with others, are able to yield a meaningful, coherent interpretation of the
He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion.
The fundamental questions of how and why we read have an infinitude of answers, none of which entirely 'do the job', simply because they bear too closely upon the automatic, (and therefore, to us, secret) processes of the mind; the act of reading is too closely related to the act of living in the world for us to comprehend definitively. There are few writers who understand and exploit this primal link more persistently than Jorge Luis Borges. One of the ways in which he forces us to examine the parallels between reading and existing (I use the word 'force' because it is not always a pleasant confrontation) is through the thematic use of memory.
Everyone comes from their own background, and has their own opinions about the world around them. They bring those thoughts and prejudices with them into every text they read, meaning they see what they expect to see. The author claims that close reading leads to ethical reading, ethical reading meaning the reader is listening to the author’s voice within the text, truly understanding and listening to that which the author is saying. Close reading forces the reader to temporarily abandon their preconceptions and “by concentrating on the details, we disrupt our projection; we are forced to see what is really there” (Gallop p.11). The author provides some historical context, in relation to the “new criticism” method of teaching. Between the 1950’s and 1970’s new criticism, “allowed students to appreciate the complexity of literary writing, to see the artful work, rather than merely themes and ideas.” (Gallop p.13). The issue with new criticism being that only “great” works or authors were considered “worthy” of analysis in that manner. Unfortunately, most work that was considered “great” within that period were written by men of European descent. Within the past few decades the multicultural movement has made reading lists in schools more diverse, making understanding the voice of authors more important than ever, as to not reinforce stereotypes and
"Any critical reading of a text will be strengthened by a knowledge of how a text is valued by readers in differing contexts."
Rosenblatt (1995) reminds us that readers transact with texts for different purposes, which fall along what she terms the efferent-aesthetic continuum. At one end of the continuum, is the efferent, the situation in which the reader will carry away information from the text. At the other end of the continuum is the aesthetic: “In aesthetic reading, the reader’s attention is centered directly on what he/she is living through during his/her relationship with that particular text” (Rosenblatt, 1995, p. 25).
Finally we can say that the discussion in the class and the differences in the interpretations showed us clearly the differences between the perceptions of the readers on the same work. In the lights of the reader-oriented theories one can claim that there is no single truth or meaning derived from the text, the responses will change as the readers change.
The New Critics, just like Wimsatt and Beardsley put forward in their essay, also believed in the ‘organicity’ of the text. In the essay, they write, “A poem should not mean but be.” And, since the meaning of the poem or the text is the medium through which it can exist, and words, in turn, is the medium through which the meaning is expressed, the poem or the text b...
This interpretation challenges the work of those critics who long assumed that literature was described through its identity as “imaginative writing” because it broadens the definition to fit texts that are situated in reality as well (Eagleton, 2). Literature’s use of language makes readers aware of its presence as an artistic text through the formal elements that “transforms and intensifies ordinary language” (Eagleton, 2). This means that the definition of literature is determined through the aesthetic linguistic qualities as they differ from regular discourse, classifying both through the form of the other. Through formal literary devices such a “sound, imagery,” and “rhythm”, texts are removed from their counterpart of regular speech and made strange (Eagleton, 3). This abnormal use of language allows for literature to move away from the efficiency of regular speech in the sense that ideas within texts require a perceptual effort of comprehension to occur (Shklovsky, 4). By contrast, normal speech patterns are more efficient due to the fact that they are “habitual” and do not require the users to think deeply about what is being said (Shklovsky, 5). In other words, these artistic works force the reader to work to understand the ideas that are embedded within the pieces reinforcing their status as literature through