Sunday 2/26

I feel more uncertain about the core of this section of the text, for often as I read, I thought, “Am I to read this as something new? Is she repeating herself, or is this simply the byproduct of the context, attitude, and assumptions I am bringing to this transaction?” That said, I do believe that even though I wonder if I missed the boat as I kept looking for the new information, the second part of the book answered some of my questions from last week and left me thinking, “Ooo, good!” while stirring me to question the practice of reading shared texts in the classroom.

On page 104, Rosenblatt addresses the issue of reader necessitated creation of a text. I wondered last week about a reader refusing to look aesthetically at a text, thus rendering it non-artful. If the reader is charged with the complete creation, bringing the text to form and position, then The Divine Comedy might be a completely new piece each time it is read. From my understanding, though, Rosenblatt argues that Dante’s work is not recreated in as many entities as there are readings, but rather forms and evolves, changing as one dynamic piece in the individual and cultural awareness of humanity. For me, that sums up much of the reasons I would give my students why I enjoy reading and studying literature. There is a deep connectedness that I have within the larger picture of humankind. Not only am I interacting with the author and my own consciousness, but also the continued creation of the work of art.

Rosenblatt reinforces this idea for me on pages 108 and 85, giving me a bit of the reader’s chills with emphatic Amen’s and You know that that’s right’s sounding through my brain. On 108 works are described as “dynamic in nature” and given a same, basic element of human tradition: change. The text comes to life and is breathing through time and each of its readers. Poems, novels, and other works do not become stagnant. There is no universal analysis. The factors surrounding each reading make the piece unique in that moment, but the collective experience with the text allows for a much bigger and adapting synthesis. On page 85 I get the sense that the text, in itself and within the context of an aesthetic reading, reflects this change and the dynamics of culture as words and symbols, ideas and literary features, point both backward and forward, providing “a contextual ambiance” that is not merely located in the efferent understanding of the plot, but can create a greater understanding of self and the world, depending on the level of awareness one brings in their reading attitude or when a moment is sparked while reading.

I leave this text with a new question in mind: how will I approach reading in the classroom. Rosenblatt stirred my thinking on page 78: “The nonverbal setting can be understood to include all of the possible factors outside the verbal symbols themselves that might influence the interpretation of their meaning. We take for granted that the actual circumstances surrounding a spoken utterance often provide the basis for understanding.” Right now, I see students in classes, and remember my own, sitting and reading the same book together…well, alone, possibly out loud to one another, but alone. They sit in rows, sometimes thumbing through pages, but the context of reading (which is most definitely a social act) is a cattle call, where THE themes and literary analysis tools are branded into each student – some brands last longer than others. It seems important to study together and have a common literature experience – multiple interpretations aside – but a generally rigid view of the canon and methods used to distribute the text and interpret for students looks to me like disaster. I know there are plenty of teachers who do this well, but the ingrained ,scientifisizing of art in order to measure and somehow legitimize a particular method of assessment because some kinds of data are so important gives me another reason to question the classroom novel. If we teach with an emphasis on efferent reading, then that is the attitude students will take away for their next encounter with a text, possibly missing out on the contextual ambiance and cultural awareness of humanity afforded by aesthetic looks at texts.