by Ann Woodlief and Marcel Cornis-Pope, Virginia Commonwealth University
"The art of reading is a process of becoming conscious." Wolfgang Iser
"Those who fail to re-read are obliged to read the same story everywhere." Roland Barthes
"One must be an inventor to read well. . . . There's then creative reading as well as creative writing." Emerson, "The American Scholar"
Learning to read literature is a matter of learning how to work through the process of reading, to go beyond the questions raised during a first reading and begin to see the complex patterns and interpretive gaps which make literature creative art. Different
cognitive processes are engaged as the reader reads more and more closely, and it is these which are addressed here, linked to the kinds of questions that a reader explores at each stage of the reading process.
First Reading
Questions
for First Reading of Poetry, Fiction
Emotional Experience = Reading "through" the work
Linear, sequential, emotional, subjective, uncritical, superficial, selective.
- Reading for
- Reading to experience a semblance of reality
(
- to "events," "people," "characters"
- Reading for
- Reading through
- Reading "over" frustrating gaps, questions
Re-Reading(s)
Poetry,
Fiction
Imaginative Experience = Reading "into" the work for problem-solving
Holistic, interactive, questioning, recreative, cultural
- Reading to connect, fill in gaps
- Asking questions
- Inferring motivations and predicting outcomes
- Arriving at conclusions
- Reading for "otherness" as well as self-discovery
- Connecting text with other texts, experiences
Critical/Analytic Reading(s)
: reading "against" the work, negotiating "meaning" , intersubjective, comparative)
-
Analysis and appreciation of
- Reading for details, for different outcomes
- and initial perspective
- Studying problems, gaps, frustrations
- Interpreting and making meaning, reconfiguring the text
- Negotiating values and attitudes
- Analyzing your own attitudes, biases, interests
General Questions about Passages
How does this passage anticipate what is to come?
How does this passage relate to what came before?
How does it reveal character?
How (if at all) is it ironic?
How would you describe its tone?
How does this passage reflect the author's experiences?
What other works by the author share similar concerns? How?
In what ways is this passage characteristic of this author's style?
What light does it shed on the author's personality and interests?
How does it reflect its culture?
What intellectual trends does it reflect?
Does it allude to any specific historical events or circumstances?
What if anything is the source to which this text refers?
What other texts--past or contemporary--does the passage allude to?
Is the allusion ironic? How?
How likely is it that the author would have been familiar with the text(s) alluded to? What is your evidence for this?
How would you describe the style of this passage (or its work)?
What aspects of the passage remind you of other texts of the same kind?
What are identifying stylistic features that put it into this genre?
What would a reader expect as a result of reading this kind of passage?
How does this particular passage fulfill or undercut these expectations?
What ideas or assumptions are expressed or implied in this passage?
How valid or defensible are these ideas?
What (if any) are the social and political implications of these ideas?
How pertinent are these ideas to modern life?
What in your own experience does this passage recall for you?
What other stories does it remind you of? How is it similar or different?
How (if at all) has it shed insight into your own life experiences?
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