Reading literary texts

Once readers RECOGNIZE a text as a literary text ...

• they slow down their reading and form a better mental representation of the surface structure of a text [Zwaan, 1991; Laszlo, 1988];
• their LITERARY CONTROL SYSTEM (Zwaan, 1993) activates a distinctive form of processing that regulates the basic comprehension processes;
• They activate more personal memories (of themselves as actors rather than observers or recipients of information) to contextualize the world of the text [Sielman and Larsen, 1989]

WHILE READING literary texts, readers ...

• [ANTICIPATION] Tend to adopt a forward-looking, anticipatory stance and make more inferences and predictions [Olson, 1981] (as compared to readers of expository texts, who tend to refer back to a fixed point of reference established early in the reading experience so as to build on their understanding [Langer, 1991]);
• [POLYVALENCE] Modify their schema (interpretive frame) repeatedly to account for the appearance of surprising/unfamiliar elements [Harker, 1996; Cook, 1994; Graesser et al., 1998; Miall and Kuiken, 2001] (See FOREGROUNDING below.)
• May entertain two or more possible, provisional interpretations at points when shifts in meaning become possible or are invited by surprising elements (these interpretations are hypotheses to be tested against incoming evidence)
• Experience more personal memories (in the sense that one is an agent interacting with one's environment) compared to readers of expository texts (which elicit more memories of things read or heard about), especially when the point of view is first-person [Laszlo and Larsen, 1991] and the cultural context is shared between text and reader [Larsen, Laszlo and Seilman, 1991].
• Experience two types of feelings [Kneepkens and Zwaan, 1994]:
  • NARRATIVE EMOTIONS (i.e. feelings aroused by fictional events), which can be further subdivided into ALTERCENTRIC feelings (i.e. feelings directed at fictional characters) and EGOCENTRIC feelings (i.e. feelings directed at the self); and
  • AESTHETIC EMOTIONS (i.e. feelings aroused by the artifact)
    • FOREGROUNDING [Mukarovsky, 1964] ](i.e. deviations from normal language use) offer readers a feeling-based mode of response, leading them to search for a context to locate the unusual meanings suggested. [Miall and Kuiken, 1994]
• Form a model of the narrator and his stance toward the narrative

When RE-READING literary texts, readers ...

• Move beyond a story-based understanding toward one focused on stylistic and evaluative components [Dixon et al, 1993; Cupchik, 1998]

Further notes:

Point-driven reading (vs. information-driven and story-driven) [Vipond and Hunt, 1984]

• Reading for point may be an effective strategy for approaching literature, but it is not evident that literary meaning is necessarily to be captured by points.
• Point-driven reading has the following components:
  1. Coherence - the attempt to connect apparently unrelated parts of a story
  2. Greater attention to surface features (e.g. syntax or style) on the assumption that these contribute to meaning
  3. Transactional stance - an awareness that the author in control of the narrative has a point to make

Mainstream literary criticism has been dominated by 2 traditions (Miall, 2003):

• Hermeneutic approach centered on text
• Contextual approach centered on cultural formations (e.g. gender issues, socio-economic concerns) that influence literary production/reception

Reader-response criticism neglected actual readers because critics focused instead on the conventions of reading

Literary reading depends on 2 conventions (Schmidt, 1982):

1. Aesthetic convention (vs. the Fact convention applied to regular discourse)
2. Monovalence convention - readers suppose that multiple interpretations of a text exist (vs. the Monovalence convention applied to regular discourse)

References

Langer, 1990. The process of understanding: Reading for literary and informative purposes.

Laszlo, 1988. Literary text, literary context, and reader expectations.

Miall, 1995. Anticipation and feeling in literary response: A neuropsychological perspective.

Miall, 2003. Literary discourse.

Miall and Kuiken, 1994. Beyond text theory: Understanding literary response.

Olson et al, 1981. Cognitive aspects of genre.

Schmidt, 1982. Foundations for the empirical study of literature: The components of a basic theory.

Sielman and Larsen, 1989. Personal resonance to literature: A study of remindings while reading.

Zwaan, 1991. Some parameters of literary and news comprehension: Effects of discourse-type perspective on reading rate and surface structure representation.

Zwaan, 1993. Aspects of literary comprehension.