Areas of Exploration
What are Areas of Exploration?
Areas of exploration, or AOEs, can be regarded as different approaches to a text. What distinguishes one AOE from another is the aspects of the text that each AOE invites us to consider. By looking at a text through a particular AOE our attention will be focuses upon certain characteristics of the text as other characteristics are disregarded. Therefore, it's important to regard an AOE as a lens rather than a unit because we will be considering multiple AOEs for each text rather than looking at them in isolation.
This area of exploration asks us to consider the different roles that readers, writers and texts play in the construction of meaning. In this course, we will try and vary these three components as much as possible: we will consider multiple perspective, interact with a variety of voices, and study a range of text types. Click the image to see more.
Time and Space
Studying time and space reminds us that meaning is not a fixed, unmoving phenomenon. Rather, what a text means depends upon the historical or cultural context in which it is produced or received.
Intertextuality
Texts are produced and received in historical and cultural contexts, but they also exist within a tradition of text. Each text is influenced by texts that come before it. This area of exploration invites us to explore the different ways in which texts echo one another, and how these references impact the meaning of a text.