The True Meaning Of Reading Is Not A Disinterested Activity By Applying New Critic Ideals

The assigned reading of “Good Readers and Good Writers” by Vladimir Nabokov probes the subject that is the necessary attributes an individual must have in order for them to be successful readers and writers of literature. A list of ten rules is then stated in the essay and sets them as the baseline commandments that an individual must follow in order to be some kind of a devoted “good reader”. While the criteria sets the standard for a “good reader” it aligns with that of a good analyzer and can be applied to that sense. For example one of the first pieces of advice states “If one begins with a readymade generalization, one begins at the wrong end and travels away from the book before one has started to understand it” (Nabokov 1). If a

He argues that in analysing literary works, the reader’s response to a literary work is as important as the text itself. All readers interpret and react to any given text differently, and these different reactions to the same piece of writing combine to shape the overall meaning of the literary work. In addition, when a single reader interprets a text and later revisits that same piece of writing, the reader often emerges with two different interpretations of the text and its overall purpose and meaning. Iser also stresses on the importance of the imagination of the reader. In reading, one is forced to imagine within the mind the information being read, and so one’s perception is “simultaneously richer and more private”. Also, one separates information into groups and form illusions in order to make sense of a literary text. The different ways in which a reader interprets and makes sense of a literary work all combine together to create the overall meaning and purpose of the

Christina Haas and Linda Flower both make contributions to writing in their studies about the writing process. They have collaborated on one work, Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning, to comment on a growing notion in the writing field about the reading process. They discuss findings on how rhetorical reading strategies work and why teachers should begin to influence their students with them. The main audience are other teachers. Haas and Flower’s primarily argue that the process of shaping students into literal and receptive readers should switch to shaping students into rhetorical readers, using strategies like trying to account four author’s purpose and context, for more in depth construction of meaning. Haas and

Through Foster’s many rhetorical devices he provides a knowledgeable guide on how to read literature. The numerous examples he applies allows the readers to have a more thorough understanding. Reading this book can make the experience of reading other books more satisfying, enriching and

　　In the essay “Reading and Thought”, Dwight MacDonlad talked about the kind of poor reading people are attached to in modern society. MacDonald believed reading materials such as Times and New York Times are too overwhelming for the readers. Readers tend to skim through the reading materials because most of the reading do not have any connections with their daily lives. Moreover, MacDoanld claimed that the readings people do these days are not thoughtful. The readings are rather irrelevant toward the readers. It is because the journalists to produce dull pieces of readings which are meant to be skimmed through without having too much thoughts involved. As the journalists do not have much consideration of the materials they produced. To the journalists the readings they produce are just a series of news that should be read driftly and left behind with no thoughful idea needed to be informed. These effects caused modern society to have a poor reading habits because people do not reflect and give time to think about the readings they did. Readers casually accept the readings even though they do not have provide any resourceful information for the readers.

Carr asserts that the literary “linear, mind"” (pg. 10) is being transformed into a chronic state of distraction. The mind is now looking for diversions. Carr cites neurological and physiological studies for his arguments, and he does so compellingly. However, after taking a step back, his book does not seem as sound as before. Carr is subjectively

In the first chapter of the book, “The Motive for Metaphor”, Frye starts off the book by using a vivid scene of an uninhabited island to illustrate three levels of the human mind and the language for each of them and further explore the use of imagination in literature. Frye then discusses the distinction between the arts and the sciences as “science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws” (p23) while “art begins with the world we construct, not the world we see”.(p23) By shedding light on the fundamental difference, Frye argues that literature begins in the imaginative world and stresses his point of an unprogressive literature world even though imagination has no limits.

Indeed, reading starts with an initial idea spawned by the author, but it is the reader’s responsibility to interpret, ponder, and absorb this idea in a beautiful and meaningful way. For example, a quote from one book could be lackluster to one reader and have little to no effect on them; however that same quote can move another reader to tears.

As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As

“Up for Interpretation or What is This Thing that Hearsay Is Not?” is a journal article about how an using the argument of another author in one’s work is fine as long as it is an interpretation of the original author’s work. Quentin Skinner and Christopher Ricks have different backgrounds in academia and therefore have different approaches to their common claim. Although both authors have the same claim, they approach it from different angles and are able to analyze texts differently.

Reader-response theory identifies the reader as an affective agent who imparts real exist-ence and life to the work, completing its meaning through interpretation. Reader- response criti-cism argues that literature should be viewed as art in which each reader creates his or her own-most likely unique, text-related performance. I am using Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish’s takes on Reader Response for my study.

"It is almost unimportant whether a work finds an understanding audience. One has to do it because one believes that it is the right thing to do. We are not only here to please, we cannot help challenging the spectator.”

According to (Critical literacy practices, 2011) “critical reading” is a type of literacy practice that is learning practice in which students analyze and critique language and power relationships within written texts. Many college freshmen are not prepared for critical reading, yet a lot of higher education organizations and levels do not require individual critical reading courses. Even though critical reading is an often-cited neutral topic in some different colleges structured reading courses. In many different colleges, at times, there is little to no research that exists that may also describe how composition instructors teach critical reading strategies. No matter the subject or the age of the reader. An overall reading goal for critical readers includes reading an article to comprehend information based on what was stated within the text. While readers read to gain understanding from the text, the readers also use additional information at times such as factual ideas, prior knowledge, and also context clues to understand the difficult text. There are many ways to become a “critical reader” which includes different types of reading strategies.

Fish’s Reader Response Criticism is composed of two interdependent ideas: first, that the meaning of texts is shaped by the reading experience itself, and second, that these meanings cannot be judged to be correct or incorrect, but merely belonging to one “interpretive community” or another. The first idea may be identified as the executive aspect of Reader Response Criticism because it analyzes the act of reading, while the second idea is the epistemological aspect of the theory because it circumscribes the knowledge we can acquire about a text to the merely relative. Studied independently, each aspect of Reader Response Theory offers by itself strong arguments countervailing the formalist stance of the New Critics. But as we will see,

Reader-Response Criticism- Reader-response focuses on the reader rather than the work itself by attempting to describe what foes on in the readers mind during a reading of the text. The consciousness of the reader is the actual subject of reader-response criticism. It is an exploration of the possibilities for a plurality of readings. The reader is a producer rather than a consuming of meaning. Group approaches to understanding literature that emphasizes the reader's role in creating the meaning and experience of a literary work. It is also a group of critics who study not literary work but readers or audiences responding to a literary work. Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an active agent who completes its meaning through interpretation. Reader-response argues that literature should be viewed as a performing art in which each reader creates his or her own text-related performance.