Communication

Communication

The concept of communication revolves around the question of the relationship that is established between a writer and a reader by means of a text. The extent to which writers facilitate communication through their choices of style and structure may be an aspect to analyse in this exploration. The writer may also have a particular audience in mind which may mean assumptions have been made about the reader’s knowledge or views which might make communication with some readers easier than with others. Alternatively, the amount of cooperation that a text demands from a reader for communication to take place, and the readiness of the reader to engage is also important as a topic for discussion. Even with cooperative readers, the meaning of a text is never univocal, which makes the concept of communication a particularly productive, and potentially problematic one in relation to both literary and non-literary texts.

The concept of communication is central to debates around readers, writers, and texts. Writers, we may assume, communicate with readers, manipulating language, style, and structure to establish ideas. Writers may write for particular purposes and for different intended audiences; it is interesting for students of English A: Language and Literature to consider how writers manipulate language and style to communicate with readers, an audience that may or may not be intended. Readers, in turn, may read more or less cooperatively. Even cooperative readers may arrive at different understandings of a text, and oppositional readers may challenge the ideas and meanings intended by a writer. Understood in this way, communication is a complex notion in which the meaning of texts may be more or less contested.