Native readers
Analysis, January 19 2007
Literary responses: what specific powers and effects do literary texts have on these readers? Suppose these readers had no literary education (as appears the case), can we infer that their responses are to innately influential features of literary texts and language?
McGill:
- the words went to my heart: feeling
- not able to explain: experiencing not explaining
Hillyer:
- Here were wonderful things to know: world-creating
- coloured words: imagery
- called up spirits: power of words
- a limitless world: world-creating
- Autumnal! ... a good sound: sound
- bring together shreds and remembered pieces: recontextualizing
- passionate for the rest (Waverley): narrative
Acorn:
- 'Penny Bloods' to George Eliot: narrative
- I read solely for the story: narrative
- absorbed attention: transport
- dreamed of becoming: self-creating
Burnham:
- what a magical sound! sound
- a whole chill world: world-creating
- magical words chanted themselves: sound
- I seemed to sense some essence: insight
Clare:
- allowing them authenticity: world-creating
- my heart twitter with joy: feeling
- Robinson Crusoe: narrative
- new Crusoes and new Islands: world-creating
Miller:
- the art of finding stories: narrative
- power of imagery in Homer: imagery
- I wished myself big enough: self-creating
Clynes:
- transfixed and dazed: imagery, rhythm
- the machinery had a different meaning: reconfiguring
- the rhythm of the machines: rhythm
- a land of fairy beauty: world-creating; beauty
- become familiar with other word: autodidact
- Some of the words I loved: feeling; imagery (eye, ear)
- the swinging rhythm: rhythm
- days vs. evenings reading: transport
- feel the power of words: feeling
- helped to shape my life: self-creating
Consider these responses as a basis for empirical studies of literary reading, i.e., the elements of response prior to the reader's acquisition of literary-historical knowledge, genre rules, or literary conventions.
Document created January 20th 2007