David Paul Nord
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195173116
- eISBN:
- 9780199835683
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195173112.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, ...
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In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses. They were nonprofit religious organizations, including the American Bible Society, American Tract Society, and American Sunday School Union. Faith in Reading tells the story of the noncommercial origins of mass media in America. The theme is how religious publishers learned to work against the flow of ordinary commerce. Religious publishing societies believed that reading was too important to be left to the “market revolution”; they sought to foil the market through the “visible hand” of organization. Though religious publishers worked against the market, they employed modern printing technologies and business methods, and were remarkably successful, churning out millions of Bibles, tracts, religious books, and periodicals. At the same time, they tried to teach people to read those books in the most traditional way. Their aim was to use new mass media to encourage old reading habits. This book examines both publishers and readers. It is about how religious publishing societies imagined their readers. It is also about reader response — how ordinary readers received and read religious books and tracts in early 19th century America.Less
In the years after 1815, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch true mass media in America. They believed it was possible through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses. They were nonprofit religious organizations, including the American Bible Society, American Tract Society, and American Sunday School Union. Faith in Reading tells the story of the noncommercial origins of mass media in America. The theme is how religious publishers learned to work against the flow of ordinary commerce. Religious publishing societies believed that reading was too important to be left to the “market revolution”; they sought to foil the market through the “visible hand” of organization. Though religious publishers worked against the market, they employed modern printing technologies and business methods, and were remarkably successful, churning out millions of Bibles, tracts, religious books, and periodicals. At the same time, they tried to teach people to read those books in the most traditional way. Their aim was to use new mass media to encourage old reading habits. This book examines both publishers and readers. It is about how religious publishing societies imagined their readers. It is also about reader response — how ordinary readers received and read religious books and tracts in early 19th century America.
Emily Baragwanath
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231294
- eISBN:
- 9780191710797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Taking Plutarch's criticisms in de Malignitate Herodoti as a point of entry into Herodotus' strategies for guiding his readers' response, this chapter argues that Herodotus' reader is motivated to ...
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Taking Plutarch's criticisms in de Malignitate Herodoti as a point of entry into Herodotus' strategies for guiding his readers' response, this chapter argues that Herodotus' reader is motivated to take a particular, active stance towards his text. Herodotus is set in the context of the sophists. The theoretical background of Iser's reader response criticism is introduced, with Herodotus' presentation of the question of the Alcmaeonids' possible medizing after Marathon serving as a test case for a reader-response approach.Less
Taking Plutarch's criticisms in de Malignitate Herodoti as a point of entry into Herodotus' strategies for guiding his readers' response, this chapter argues that Herodotus' reader is motivated to take a particular, active stance towards his text. Herodotus is set in the context of the sophists. The theoretical background of Iser's reader response criticism is introduced, with Herodotus' presentation of the question of the Alcmaeonids' possible medizing after Marathon serving as a test case for a reader-response approach.
William L Randall and A. Elizabeth McKim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195306873
- eISBN:
- 9780199894062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306873.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter discusses the nature of reading from the perspectives of both psychology and literary theory. Research into the cognitive and neurological features of reading indicates that we process ...
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This chapter discusses the nature of reading from the perspectives of both psychology and literary theory. Research into the cognitive and neurological features of reading indicates that we process written text in much the same way as we process day-to-day experience. In their analyses of reader-response, literary theorists insist that reading is a constructive process, and that a text's meaning depends as much on the reader's interpretation as on the author's intention. Awareness of this process, and of the fact that every text is thus an open text, is necessary for gaining literary competence. Such awareness has been labeled by Louise Rosenblatt as “aesthetic reading,” in opposition to “efferent reading,” which locates meaning only in the text. The chapter argues that reading literature can aid us in reading life, as claimed by proponents of bibliotherapy. Moreover, understanding the process of reading can contribute to the acquisition of literary self-literacy.Less
This chapter discusses the nature of reading from the perspectives of both psychology and literary theory. Research into the cognitive and neurological features of reading indicates that we process written text in much the same way as we process day-to-day experience. In their analyses of reader-response, literary theorists insist that reading is a constructive process, and that a text's meaning depends as much on the reader's interpretation as on the author's intention. Awareness of this process, and of the fact that every text is thus an open text, is necessary for gaining literary competence. Such awareness has been labeled by Louise Rosenblatt as “aesthetic reading,” in opposition to “efferent reading,” which locates meaning only in the text. The chapter argues that reading literature can aid us in reading life, as claimed by proponents of bibliotherapy. Moreover, understanding the process of reading can contribute to the acquisition of literary self-literacy.
John Barton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern ...
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Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.Less
Readers of ancient texts often assume that they are looking for the meaning intended by the author. Trends in modern literary theory, from the ‘New Criticism’ to structuralism and postmodern deconstruction, have called this into question. In its place readers look either for meanings supposedly inherent to the text regardless of the author's intention, or for meanings attributable to the text through creative ‘readings’, without any implication that the text has a ‘real’ meaning. Theorising of this kind has been more typical of the study of modern literature than of ancient texts, but the fact that so much ancient writing is anonymous or pseudonymous might make it an even more suitable case for a literary-theoretical treatment. However, such reading can produce meanings that are completely arbitrary. The work of Umberto Eco can provide a middle way between a textual determinism and total arbitrariness, through his concept of the intentio operis.
Emily Baragwanath
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231294
- eISBN:
- 9780191710797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Moving from Plutarch's accusation that Herodotus is too fond of polarizing questions of motivation into better and worse, and emphasizing the latter, this chapter considers cases of alternative ...
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Moving from Plutarch's accusation that Herodotus is too fond of polarizing questions of motivation into better and worse, and emphasizing the latter, this chapter considers cases of alternative accounts in the Histories where the alternative possibilities relate to questions of motivation. It reviews those where the double explanations do not represent true alternatives; where they are genuine but no ethical judgment attaches to a particular choice; and where the alternatives are indeed morally weighted (e.g. principled versus pragmatic)—as in the case-studies of the Athenians' expulsion of the Pelasgians and failure to expel the Peisistratids. Reader response is not simply a matter, then, of making an autonomous choice between alternatives, but of observing a complex skein of possible motivations and their possible resolutions. Herodotus' presentation implies that polarized views of motivation do not reflect complex realities.Less
Moving from Plutarch's accusation that Herodotus is too fond of polarizing questions of motivation into better and worse, and emphasizing the latter, this chapter considers cases of alternative accounts in the Histories where the alternative possibilities relate to questions of motivation. It reviews those where the double explanations do not represent true alternatives; where they are genuine but no ethical judgment attaches to a particular choice; and where the alternatives are indeed morally weighted (e.g. principled versus pragmatic)—as in the case-studies of the Athenians' expulsion of the Pelasgians and failure to expel the Peisistratids. Reader response is not simply a matter, then, of making an autonomous choice between alternatives, but of observing a complex skein of possible motivations and their possible resolutions. Herodotus' presentation implies that polarized views of motivation do not reflect complex realities.
Emily Baragwanath
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231294
- eISBN:
- 9780191710797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter addresses Herodotus' presentation of Themistocles' motives, taking as a test case the general's rhetoric and conduct at Andros (9.109-110) and after. It reconsiders the possibility of ...
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This chapter addresses Herodotus' presentation of Themistocles' motives, taking as a test case the general's rhetoric and conduct at Andros (9.109-110) and after. It reconsiders the possibility of unreliable narratorial comments and the effect of these in eliciting reader response, particularly through the production of shifting perspectives. Herodotus' presentation recalls subsequent history and contemporary - late 5th-century - politics, for example in reflecting sophistic/democratic processes. While underlining the importance of original readers' contemporary experience in interpreting the Histories, the chapter brings out how the narrative in turn exposes the role played by later events in the retrospective fashioning of motivation. It again underlines the complexity of Herodotus' presentation and how it opens up different interpretative possibilities, highlighting the historian's broad intellectual and historiographical—rather than more narrowly political—concerns.Less
This chapter addresses Herodotus' presentation of Themistocles' motives, taking as a test case the general's rhetoric and conduct at Andros (9.109-110) and after. It reconsiders the possibility of unreliable narratorial comments and the effect of these in eliciting reader response, particularly through the production of shifting perspectives. Herodotus' presentation recalls subsequent history and contemporary - late 5th-century - politics, for example in reflecting sophistic/democratic processes. While underlining the importance of original readers' contemporary experience in interpreting the Histories, the chapter brings out how the narrative in turn exposes the role played by later events in the retrospective fashioning of motivation. It again underlines the complexity of Herodotus' presentation and how it opens up different interpretative possibilities, highlighting the historian's broad intellectual and historiographical—rather than more narrowly political—concerns.
Emily Baragwanath
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231294
- eISBN:
- 9780191710797
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231294.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and was also critical to their interpretation in retrospect. This ...
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Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and was also critical to their interpretation in retrospect. This book examines the representation of human motivation in Herodotus' Histories, building on recent work that views the historian against the background of the sophists and exploring the implications of this for the Histories' narrative books. Working from the theoretical basis of reader response criticism, it uses Plutarch's insights to plot Herodotus' narrative strategies for guiding his readers' response to questions of motives. Its focus is the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represents this elusive variety of historical knowledge; but through illustrating and analyzing a range of such techniques across a wide selection of narratives, it supplies a method for reading the Histories more generally. Herodotus is revealed as a master of both narrative and historiography, able tell a lucid story of the past while nonetheless exposing the methodological and epistemological challenges it presented. Subjects discussed include the influence of Homer as a narrative model; the account of Leonidas and Thermopylae—where the subtle interweaving of heroic and more pragmatic motivations contribute to the historian's self-characterization; the Samian and Persian stories, with their depiction of irrational motivation; the Athenian stories, which reveal Herodotus' polarizing technique of presentation; the complications of rhetoric, with its slogans of ‘freedom’ and ‘Greek unity’, in the Ionian Revolt narrative—which proves a touchstone for assessing the later campaign; motives and necessity in the Greek states' response to the Persian threat; and the characterization of the Histories' most prominent individuals, Xerxes and Themistocles.Less
Herodotus sought to communicate not only what happened, but also the background of thoughts and perceptions that shaped those events and was also critical to their interpretation in retrospect. This book examines the representation of human motivation in Herodotus' Histories, building on recent work that views the historian against the background of the sophists and exploring the implications of this for the Histories' narrative books. Working from the theoretical basis of reader response criticism, it uses Plutarch's insights to plot Herodotus' narrative strategies for guiding his readers' response to questions of motives. Its focus is the sophisticated narrative techniques with which Herodotus represents this elusive variety of historical knowledge; but through illustrating and analyzing a range of such techniques across a wide selection of narratives, it supplies a method for reading the Histories more generally. Herodotus is revealed as a master of both narrative and historiography, able tell a lucid story of the past while nonetheless exposing the methodological and epistemological challenges it presented. Subjects discussed include the influence of Homer as a narrative model; the account of Leonidas and Thermopylae—where the subtle interweaving of heroic and more pragmatic motivations contribute to the historian's self-characterization; the Samian and Persian stories, with their depiction of irrational motivation; the Athenian stories, which reveal Herodotus' polarizing technique of presentation; the complications of rhetoric, with its slogans of ‘freedom’ and ‘Greek unity’, in the Ionian Revolt narrative—which proves a touchstone for assessing the later campaign; motives and necessity in the Greek states' response to the Persian threat; and the characterization of the Histories' most prominent individuals, Xerxes and Themistocles.
ROBERT D. HUME
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186328
- eISBN:
- 9780191674518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186328.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Archaeo–Historicism offers a very clear sense of purpose. It aims to reconstruct past events and viewpoints and to use constructions in aid of contextual interpretation. However, the theoretical and ...
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Archaeo–Historicism offers a very clear sense of purpose. It aims to reconstruct past events and viewpoints and to use constructions in aid of contextual interpretation. However, the theoretical and practical problems in carrying out those purposes present considerable difficulties. This chapter presents a survey of the sort of things archaeo-historicists do, with practical commentary on assumptions, objectives, and pitfalls. The survey includes arriving at questions, acquiring evidence, reconstructing contexts, entering a foreign horizon of expectations, historical reader-response paradigms, analysis of texts in context, and testing results. The commentary also restates and defends a crucial principle, that the historicist's primary commitment is to the recreation of the viewpoints of the people he or she studies.Less
Archaeo–Historicism offers a very clear sense of purpose. It aims to reconstruct past events and viewpoints and to use constructions in aid of contextual interpretation. However, the theoretical and practical problems in carrying out those purposes present considerable difficulties. This chapter presents a survey of the sort of things archaeo-historicists do, with practical commentary on assumptions, objectives, and pitfalls. The survey includes arriving at questions, acquiring evidence, reconstructing contexts, entering a foreign horizon of expectations, historical reader-response paradigms, analysis of texts in context, and testing results. The commentary also restates and defends a crucial principle, that the historicist's primary commitment is to the recreation of the viewpoints of the people he or she studies.
Stephen Andrew Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198270270
- eISBN:
- 9780191603396
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198270275.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter surveys the various hypotheses suggested by scholars for establishing Victorinus’ motivations for commenting on the Pauline corpus. Reader-response criticism is employed to elucidate ...
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This chapter surveys the various hypotheses suggested by scholars for establishing Victorinus’ motivations for commenting on the Pauline corpus. Reader-response criticism is employed to elucidate Victorinus’ intentions toward his audience. The dating of the commentaries, in relation to that of his Trinitarian treatises, is closely examined. Two major thematic complexes emerge from a reading of the extant commentaries on Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians: the Trinitarian Controversy; and justification by faith, often accompanied by polemics against Judaizing Christians. Victorinus’ concern to articulate an understanding of God and Christ consonant with the creed of Nicea is patent, but the attempt to identify that concern as the major motivation for his authorship of the commentaries is unconvincing. Victorinus’ frequent polemics against Jewish practices derives his own concern about Christians engaged in Judaizing — such Judaizing being well-documented by a variety of fourth-century sources. Victorinus’ pioneering employment of the formulation ‘faith alone’ (sola fides) and his understanding of justification by faith does not reach the point of Augustine’s anti-Pelagian exegesis but is not itself reducible to an incipient Pelagianism.Less
This chapter surveys the various hypotheses suggested by scholars for establishing Victorinus’ motivations for commenting on the Pauline corpus. Reader-response criticism is employed to elucidate Victorinus’ intentions toward his audience. The dating of the commentaries, in relation to that of his Trinitarian treatises, is closely examined. Two major thematic complexes emerge from a reading of the extant commentaries on Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians: the Trinitarian Controversy; and justification by faith, often accompanied by polemics against Judaizing Christians. Victorinus’ concern to articulate an understanding of God and Christ consonant with the creed of Nicea is patent, but the attempt to identify that concern as the major motivation for his authorship of the commentaries is unconvincing. Victorinus’ frequent polemics against Jewish practices derives his own concern about Christians engaged in Judaizing — such Judaizing being well-documented by a variety of fourth-century sources. Victorinus’ pioneering employment of the formulation ‘faith alone’ (sola fides) and his understanding of justification by faith does not reach the point of Augustine’s anti-Pelagian exegesis but is not itself reducible to an incipient Pelagianism.
William May
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583379
- eISBN:
- 9780191723193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583379.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English ...
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This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English literature scholar, and considers its impact on both her attitudes to reading and her literary tastes. It traces this sibling antagonism through to her 1920s reading notebooks and eventually to her own book reviews, which often served as defensive gestures towards her projected reading public. It concludes by noting Smith's deliberate concealment of her own literary influences in essays, interviews, and public appearances.Less
This chapter explores Smith's own reading practice to help explain her playful and often hostile relationship with tradition. It focuses on her troubled relationship with her sister, an English literature scholar, and considers its impact on both her attitudes to reading and her literary tastes. It traces this sibling antagonism through to her 1920s reading notebooks and eventually to her own book reviews, which often served as defensive gestures towards her projected reading public. It concludes by noting Smith's deliberate concealment of her own literary influences in essays, interviews, and public appearances.
Michael Davies
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199242405
- eISBN:
- 9780191602405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242402.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Highlights the critical approach taken in ‘graceful reading’, in revising our understanding of Bunyan’s Calvinist theology and in pursuing a reader-response approach to his writings, especially in ...
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Highlights the critical approach taken in ‘graceful reading’, in revising our understanding of Bunyan’s Calvinist theology and in pursuing a reader-response approach to his writings, especially in relation to Stanley Fish’s work. The study also identifies similarities between postmodernist fictive strategies, as discussed by Brian McHale and Bunyan’s narrative style.Less
Highlights the critical approach taken in ‘graceful reading’, in revising our understanding of Bunyan’s Calvinist theology and in pursuing a reader-response approach to his writings, especially in relation to Stanley Fish’s work. The study also identifies similarities between postmodernist fictive strategies, as discussed by Brian McHale and Bunyan’s narrative style.
Jenefer Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199263653
- eISBN:
- 9780191603211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199263655.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
The emotional experience of reading a novel is itself educational, teaching us about life and morality. However, emotional learning is not just a matter of making reflective judgements or acquiring ...
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The emotional experience of reading a novel is itself educational, teaching us about life and morality. However, emotional learning is not just a matter of making reflective judgements or acquiring beliefs about the characters and events portrayed, but of making affective appraisals of important events, having our attention focused on these events in a bodily way, and reflecting upon them after the fact. This chapter contains a detailed reading of Edith Wharton's The Reef, in which these themes are explored and illustrated. It also defends the version of ‘reader-response theory’ that underpins the discussion.Less
The emotional experience of reading a novel is itself educational, teaching us about life and morality. However, emotional learning is not just a matter of making reflective judgements or acquiring beliefs about the characters and events portrayed, but of making affective appraisals of important events, having our attention focused on these events in a bodily way, and reflecting upon them after the fact. This chapter contains a detailed reading of Edith Wharton's The Reef, in which these themes are explored and illustrated. It also defends the version of ‘reader-response theory’ that underpins the discussion.
Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198236818
- eISBN:
- 9780191679377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198236818.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Language
Works of fiction might, of course, elicit any kind of response from their readers. These might be utterly idiosyncratic, resting on associations of ideas, personal recollections, emotional and ...
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Works of fiction might, of course, elicit any kind of response from their readers. These might be utterly idiosyncratic, resting on associations of ideas, personal recollections, emotional and psychological reactions; they might be dictated by expectations of genre and tradition, and in general they might involve different degrees of understanding and misunderstanding. In certain respects there might also be gender-relative and culture-relative responses. This chapter distinguishes those responses constitutive of fiction per se from those merely connected causally to particular works or those associated with specific genres or specific kinds of readers. It aims to characterize those responses conventionally determined by the practice of fiction, responses ‘appropriate’ to fiction.Less
Works of fiction might, of course, elicit any kind of response from their readers. These might be utterly idiosyncratic, resting on associations of ideas, personal recollections, emotional and psychological reactions; they might be dictated by expectations of genre and tradition, and in general they might involve different degrees of understanding and misunderstanding. In certain respects there might also be gender-relative and culture-relative responses. This chapter distinguishes those responses constitutive of fiction per se from those merely connected causally to particular works or those associated with specific genres or specific kinds of readers. It aims to characterize those responses conventionally determined by the practice of fiction, responses ‘appropriate’ to fiction.
William May
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583379
- eISBN:
- 9780191723193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583379.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter considers the construction of Smith's public persona in her relation to her critical reception. It notes the defensive and protective critical stances often taken on Smith's work, ...
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This chapter considers the construction of Smith's public persona in her relation to her critical reception. It notes the defensive and protective critical stances often taken on Smith's work, examines the notion of misreading with reference to the marketing and reception of Smith's work in the 1930s, and traces this through to contemporary responses by feminist and poststructuralist critics. The chapter explores Smith's correspondence with agents, readers, and reviewers throughout her career, notes that her self-written blurbs deliberately worked to offset the current critical consensus, and focuses on Smith's self-construction in interviews and public appearances.Less
This chapter considers the construction of Smith's public persona in her relation to her critical reception. It notes the defensive and protective critical stances often taken on Smith's work, examines the notion of misreading with reference to the marketing and reception of Smith's work in the 1930s, and traces this through to contemporary responses by feminist and poststructuralist critics. The chapter explores Smith's correspondence with agents, readers, and reviewers throughout her career, notes that her self-written blurbs deliberately worked to offset the current critical consensus, and focuses on Smith's self-construction in interviews and public appearances.
William May
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583379
- eISBN:
- 9780191723193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583379.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores Smith's construction of a reading figure in her three novels. It examines how the addresses to the reader develop through Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) and Over the Frontier ...
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This chapter explores Smith's construction of a reading figure in her three novels. It examines how the addresses to the reader develop through Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) and Over the Frontier (1938), considers the importance of letter-writing and autobiographical texts in her fiction, and traces the impact of her literary success on her representations of the reading process. It notes the significance of overlooked reading acts in her novels with reference to the Panopticon prison, and discusses the importance of surveillance, punishment, and spectatorship in her oeuvre.Less
This chapter explores Smith's construction of a reading figure in her three novels. It examines how the addresses to the reader develop through Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) and Over the Frontier (1938), considers the importance of letter-writing and autobiographical texts in her fiction, and traces the impact of her literary success on her representations of the reading process. It notes the significance of overlooked reading acts in her novels with reference to the Panopticon prison, and discusses the importance of surveillance, punishment, and spectatorship in her oeuvre.
Leah Price
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691114170
- eISBN:
- 9781400842186
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691114170.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines reading. For scholars as for the secular novelists discussed in the next two chapters, reading is harder to document than handling—let alone than writing. Even as literary ...
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This chapter examines reading. For scholars as for the secular novelists discussed in the next two chapters, reading is harder to document than handling—let alone than writing. Even as literary critics shifted their focus from the authorial exception to the readerly rule, reader-response theorists and reception historians alike continued to study the text as a linguistic structure, at the expense of the book as a material thing. Indeed, mental actions prove harder to track than manual gestures—human traces that are not intentional, let alone textual, let alone literary. From evidence of reading to nonevidence of reading to evidence of nonreading: those bodily acts that both accompany and replace reading, whether licking a page or turning down a corner, should provide historians of the book with more than a consolation prize.Less
This chapter examines reading. For scholars as for the secular novelists discussed in the next two chapters, reading is harder to document than handling—let alone than writing. Even as literary critics shifted their focus from the authorial exception to the readerly rule, reader-response theorists and reception historians alike continued to study the text as a linguistic structure, at the expense of the book as a material thing. Indeed, mental actions prove harder to track than manual gestures—human traces that are not intentional, let alone textual, let alone literary. From evidence of reading to nonevidence of reading to evidence of nonreading: those bodily acts that both accompany and replace reading, whether licking a page or turning down a corner, should provide historians of the book with more than a consolation prize.
Ludwig D. Morenz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both ...
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This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian literature. It addresses questions of form and function, producers and recipients, as well as discussing the search for empirical readers. Also discussed are the question of original manuscripts and the potential significance of writing errors.Less
This chapter discusses aspects of Egyptian ‘fine literature’ (belles-lettres), and combines general literary and cultural-scientific theoretical considerations with specific case studies from both Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian literature. It addresses questions of form and function, producers and recipients, as well as discussing the search for empirical readers. Also discussed are the question of original manuscripts and the potential significance of writing errors.
Julia Round
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824455
- eISBN:
- 9781496824509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824455.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter examines Misty’s letters page. Few critics have analyzed comics letters pages in any depth, and this chapter discusses what self-image the ‘Write to Misty’ page constructs and whether ...
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This chapter examines Misty’s letters page. Few critics have analyzed comics letters pages in any depth, and this chapter discusses what self-image the ‘Write to Misty’ page constructs and whether this is consistent with (1) dominant discourses of the horror genre, (2) the reputation and readership of British girls’ comics, and (3) comics letters pages more generally. It analyzes the entire run of “Write to Misty,” demonstrating that reader response to the comic is based around the following six categories: creativity, curiosity, connection, community and conversation, comment and criticism, and compass. It frames these findings with scholarship on female audiences and their periodical publications. The analysis shows that Misty’screative, critical and collegiate reader response is well-suited to its genre and audience, as much of the appeal of horror and Gothic literature comes from its challenge to our bravery and imaginations; its innate conservatism and morality; and (paradoxically) its challenge to social norms and notions of acceptability.Less
This chapter examines Misty’s letters page. Few critics have analyzed comics letters pages in any depth, and this chapter discusses what self-image the ‘Write to Misty’ page constructs and whether this is consistent with (1) dominant discourses of the horror genre, (2) the reputation and readership of British girls’ comics, and (3) comics letters pages more generally. It analyzes the entire run of “Write to Misty,” demonstrating that reader response to the comic is based around the following six categories: creativity, curiosity, connection, community and conversation, comment and criticism, and compass. It frames these findings with scholarship on female audiences and their periodical publications. The analysis shows that Misty’screative, critical and collegiate reader response is well-suited to its genre and audience, as much of the appeal of horror and Gothic literature comes from its challenge to our bravery and imaginations; its innate conservatism and morality; and (paradoxically) its challenge to social norms and notions of acceptability.
Jack Stillinger
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195130225
- eISBN:
- 9780199855209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195130225.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter continues the discussion on the reasons for the diversity of interpretations for any complex literary piece. It tackles the other half of the reader–work transaction—the actual body of ...
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This chapter continues the discussion on the reasons for the diversity of interpretations for any complex literary piece. It tackles the other half of the reader–work transaction—the actual body of work—with particular focus on its authorship. The author’s actual intent is usually ambiguous and practically unrecoverable, which is exemplified in John Keats’s comments on his practice of “intentionless spontaneity” in his compositions. Nevertheless, to exclude the author in determining the meaning of his work would render the interpretation incomplete. Also, the author’s hand in the creation of the work is “visible” in the many little cues that exist throughout the text of any manuscript. Thus, the “reader-response-based theory of multiple interpretation” proposed in the previous chapter is further enriched with the inclusion of the author and the text as major elements. The remaining section discusses Keats and the various indicators of meaning embedded in the poem’s text.Less
This chapter continues the discussion on the reasons for the diversity of interpretations for any complex literary piece. It tackles the other half of the reader–work transaction—the actual body of work—with particular focus on its authorship. The author’s actual intent is usually ambiguous and practically unrecoverable, which is exemplified in John Keats’s comments on his practice of “intentionless spontaneity” in his compositions. Nevertheless, to exclude the author in determining the meaning of his work would render the interpretation incomplete. Also, the author’s hand in the creation of the work is “visible” in the many little cues that exist throughout the text of any manuscript. Thus, the “reader-response-based theory of multiple interpretation” proposed in the previous chapter is further enriched with the inclusion of the author and the text as major elements. The remaining section discusses Keats and the various indicators of meaning embedded in the poem’s text.
J. Blenkinsopp
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780198263913
- eISBN:
- 9780191601187
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198263910.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This is the second of six chapters on the Old Testament and its authors. It discusses prophecy and the prophetic books of the Old Testament starting by pointing out that not much has been added to ...
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This is the second of six chapters on the Old Testament and its authors. It discusses prophecy and the prophetic books of the Old Testament starting by pointing out that not much has been added to the non‐biblical data bearing on the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel since the 1979 study of the prophetic literature by W. McKane. The aspects of the subject addressed in Sect. I include the danger of form‐critical positivism and the problematic nature of the passage from text to prophetic realia (McKane), B. S. Child's advocacy of interpretation in the context of canon, reader response theory and prophetic terminology. Section II looks at the social‐scientific approach to prophecy, and Sect. III looks at the process by which prophetic books and the prophetic corpus as a whole reached the form in which they are now available. Section IV discusses the early Second Temple period, and the last section of the chapter looks at one of the most contentious issues in the study of the prophetic texts—the relation between prophecy and law.Less
This is the second of six chapters on the Old Testament and its authors. It discusses prophecy and the prophetic books of the Old Testament starting by pointing out that not much has been added to the non‐biblical data bearing on the phenomenon of prophecy in ancient Israel since the 1979 study of the prophetic literature by W. McKane. The aspects of the subject addressed in Sect. I include the danger of form‐critical positivism and the problematic nature of the passage from text to prophetic realia (McKane), B. S. Child's advocacy of interpretation in the context of canon, reader response theory and prophetic terminology. Section II looks at the social‐scientific approach to prophecy, and Sect. III looks at the process by which prophetic books and the prophetic corpus as a whole reached the form in which they are now available. Section IV discusses the early Second Temple period, and the last section of the chapter looks at one of the most contentious issues in the study of the prophetic texts—the relation between prophecy and law.
