I. ENGAGEMENT:
Toward a Taxonomy
of Reader Response
A. Biographical/Autobiographical
--Intentionality
intentional fallacy
authorial intent
B. Book "Covers"/Thematic Preconceptions
--Presentation/Proposition
--Diet Metaphor
good "bad" books
bad "good" books
--Concepts/Ideas and Prophylactics
C. Aesthetic Matters
--Definition of Art
--Aesthetic/Efferent
Willing Suspension of Disbelief
D. Uses of Art
--Message in-the-bottle Syndrome/or
Wham Bam Thank You Book –
see Presentation/Proposition above
--The Comic
pessimistic/optimistic; angelic/devilish
E. Generic Preconceptions
--Novel (Plot/Action Syndrome
--Play (Performance/Text)
--Short Story
--Poem (Edgar-Allen-Poe syndrome)
F. Reader Ritual
--How and Why
Close Reading
Student Reading
Speed Reading
--When
--Where
G. Kinds of questions readers might ask
of a text under Engagement.
1. Did you know anything about the author
or the work before you began reading?
What if any were your expectations and
how did they affect your experience?
2. Was there anything early on in the novel
or on the cover or in the title that turned you
off or turned you on -- that prevented or
allowed good engagement?
3. Are there certain kinds of books (experience)
that you don't read or prefer to read? Is this one
of them? Why?
4. Is there anything about the form of this work
(the way it is written) that helps or hinders
engagement?
5. Is the subject matter of this story or parts
of the story.of the kind you like to read about
(i.e. experience)? That affected you in a
significant way? Why did it?
6. Are there incidents in the work that relate
to those in your own life? How?
*Tip
The framework of Engagement/Perception/
Interpretation/Evaluation suggests that the
act of reading is a linear process. We engage a
text first and we judge it last. It would be better to
think of reading as a cyclical or telescoping process.
In this respect you will find an element of redundancy
as we reencounter items from earlier parts of the
Taxonomy (e.g. Engagement items in the section
under Evaluation).
II. PERCEPTION:
Toward a Taxonomy of Reader Response
What do you see? What do you read?
What is in the text? What in the context
could matter? What activity on your part
opens a text, or closes a text?
What restraints exist in the text?
A. Engagement and Perception: The Connection
B. Nothing-in-Art-Happens-by-Accident Concept
C. Buyer's and Seller's Market Concept
--or looking up words and other pains
D. Cliff Notes--To Use or Not to Use
E. Symbol-Mongering Syndrome
(When and When-Not to)
--nature or nurture
F. Genres and their Features
G'. The Vocabulary of Seeing--irony, metaphor,
Character, pattern, conflict, etc ...
'H. Beginnings and Endings
I. Context and Text-
J. Rabinowitz's Rules of Reading
A. Rules of Notice-
1. titles are privledged (First Practice in what?
2.opening and closing lines or sentences
3. specific rules that are genre and author specific
B. Rules of Signification
1. fast means slow
2. calendar flipping means time has passed
3. entering bedrooms and next scene is breakfast
4. read the text as expressing some significant
attitude toward man and his world
C. Rules of Configuration
1. Ability to perceive pattern or seek pattern
(though this is culture bound also .
Cf the configuration (Dionysian of the city of Tokyo)
2. irony is a principle of structure in a good work.
Idea of unity
3. Two or three plots at once in a sit com all
coming together.
D. Rules of Coherence
1. Read a text so that it becomes the best text possible
K. Kind of questions readers might ask under Perception
1. Given whatever generic preconceptions you may
have about the work in question (novel; short story;
play; poem; author; title; cover jacket; word of
mouth;), what features aimed at understanding
the experience were crucial?
2. Is there anything in the story that you find hard to
understand or that you think others might not
perceive but that you observed? In other words
what unusual verifiable aspects of the experience
did you perceive?
3. Are there any dominant and/or unusual perception
elements worth noting? e.g. metaphor, imagery,
syntax, allusion, symbols, allegory, tone,
point of view, irony.
4. Describe the key characters. Who are they?
What are they like? How do they act?
Why do they behave the way they do?
How do they interact with other characters?
This is pretty much like what you might observe
about real people you meet.
5. How is the story structured? What is the conflict
-- people against people, society, themselves, nature?
6. Given your prior background with literature
what classifications might you make of the work
-- comedy, tragedy, absurdist humour,
slapstick, pornography, erotica, satire,
mystery, mere entertainment, social study,
moral commentary, psychological analysis?
7. What classification of author's work?
i.e. early work, late work, moody period,
depressed stage, etc.
8. What is the book's place, if you know,
in history of ideas? within 20th century;
the causes of its production? A reaction to
or against what? Even if you don't know you
may want to read more about this.
III. INTERPRETATION:
Toward a taxonomy of
Reader Responses
A. Relation to Engagement and Perception.
B. "If only connect." Interpretation as connection.
(Connections are greater with greater attention
to the presentation of the text).
C. Interpretation as "corrigible hypothesis".
Consider our line by line reading of "Blue
Bouquet".
D. "Silent-Spaces" and the interpretive act.
E. Form/Content
F. True-to and true-about. Art and Reality
Realistic readings, absurdist readings,
surrealistic readings. (Generic preconceptions).
G. Meaning is in the eye of the beholder syndrome.
H. Rorschack syndrome.
I. Interpretation/Critical Thinking/Honest Knowing
J. Schools of Criticism:
a. Formalistic
b. Sociological
c. Feminist
d. Deconstruction
e. Psychological
f. Biographical
g. Philosophical
h. Moral
i. Rhetorical
j. Reader Response
k. Historical
1. Generic
m. Archetypal
K. Kinds of questions readers might ask
under Interpretation.
1. What does this art object mean to me?
What is the significance of this literary work
you have experienced? What affect if any on
your life? How was it incorporated into your
present image of the world -- did it change you,
inform you of something, add to your image
of the world, clarify it, reinforce it?
2. Are there any parts of the work that you
underlined or remembered that are significant to you?
3. What do you think the author meant by the work?
Is it a comment on man, society, morality, the human
condition, nature some or all of the above? If any of
the above what is the comment? How did you arrive
at your interpretation?
4. Is the story true-to-life assuming that such
an interpretative stance is appropriate?
5. What do you make of the characters?
What or how do you relate the characters, to your
observations about human nature? What thoughts,
if any, do you have about what happens to the
characters after the story?
6. Do you see the work as a lesson about life?
Society? Politics? Religion? Ethical?
7. Did you make any predictions that were
correct -- incorrect?
IV. Evaluation:
Toward A Taxonomy
of Reader Response
A. Engagement, Perception, Interpretation:
The Connection.
B. Beauty (Judgments) are in the Eye-of-the-Beholder
--a syndrome.
C. The Don't-Criticize-What-You-Can't-Do-Syndrome.
D. "It isn't whether you like it, but whether you ought
to like." by Mondrian
Above quote also ties in with section on The Character of the
Reader.
E. Validity in Interpretation and
Evaluation/Appropriateness in
Interpretation and Evaluation.
F. Evaluation (and Interpretation) as Catch.
G. Value of Endorsements--Dialogue vs. Argument
H. "I-Know-What-I-Like" syndrome.
I. Art-As-Leisure-Time idea. Relate to all the Uses of Art as
criteria for judging.
J. Establishing Criteria from Interpretive Frameworks.
K. Appreciation/Making Time and making Choices.
L. to tell truth vs make
life better; dangers of "close readings".
M. I Don't Like It vs. It Isn't Any Good.
N. Diet Metaphor.
O. Evaluation/Argument/Rhetoric--Man is the measure.
P. The kinds of questions readers might ask of
a text under Evaluation
1. Assuming some explanatory combination of
engagement, perception, interpretative elements
what is your bottom line like or dislike judgment?
Such a judgment is accompanied by explanation
of judgment.
2. How do you rate its influence on your life?
3. Would you read other similar work or works
by this author? Why?
4. List anything you liked about this reading
experience.
5. If possible don't consider your own feelings
about this work and answer the question:
Is this work significant in any way?
A worthwhile experience for
others?
6. What are some reasons I could give in
endorsing this work -- always accompany
with explanations.
7. Did the work supply worthwhile information
lessons? Remember that a worthwhile experience
need not contain a moral lesson.
8. Is this work comparable to others like it? How?
9. Is there any comment that this work triggers but
which is primarily a digression e.g. the work triggers
a journal entry on some other literary or non literary experience.