Prompt Seven

When students are first exposed to reading, teachers begin to discuss major plot points, but as education continues, the reading process reflects new found ideas and learning.  The classroom discussion transforms as students begin to questions what the author means and why the author decided to write a section in a certain way, in comparison to original discourse.  When the shift happens, learning becomes more exciting because of the ambiguity in the reading experience.  Everyone, due to personal experience, will see each piece of literature uniquely and bring their own understanding to each discussion.  Foster writes, “Every reader’s experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features in the text to become more or less pronounced” (110).  The differing circumstances and background each reader experiences aids layer to their understanding of the text.  By engaging in literary discussion, individuals can reveal more information about the text to others.  Without the conversation about the ambiguity, many details in literature would be left without a response.  “We tend to give writers all the credit, but reading is also an event of the imagination; our creativity, our inventiveness, encounters those of the writer, and in that meeting we puzzle out what she means, what we understand her to mean, what uses we can put her writing to” (114).  Authors create the words on the page, but readers further develop their ideas by individual experience, adding more meaning to the piece than writer intended. 

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 13, 2017 at 4:26 PM

    Too often class discussions are limited due to the lack of ambiguity and participation. Discovering other individual's perspectives is what enhances personal reading. It is also interesting to learn about a person through their perspective on literature. I often wonder if there is a correlation between becoming ambiguous and the amount of illustrations in books. If the illustrations provide a basis for the meaning of the words, and those who have yet to experience a similar experience require them to connect with the book. This would stand to reason that once you have developed a personal perspective these images are no longer needed.

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  2. UnknownJuly 16, 2017 at 12:48 PM

    I like your thought of people in a classroom coming together and sharing their thoughts and concerns about a book. I think this is how to fully experience reading a piece of literature because being close minded and oblivious to other interpretations about a piece of work will cause someone to be blinded from comprehending every possible point of view. Once all these ideas are collected then the reader can successfully form their own opinion on the book based on a collection of other's interpretations. The ambiguity of reading literature makes for an idiosyncratic environment and therefore it is so unique.

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  3. UnknownJuly 16, 2017 at 1:22 PM

    I like how you mention how the conversation transform in the classroom and how it becomes more exciting. I agree that it is more exciting because I enjoy hearing what everyone interpretation instead of a teacher telling us what we should interpret. I do not enjoy people telling me what to think and that is the beauty of reading literature, no one can tell you your interpretation is wrong but if you listen to other peoples point of view you can form a new interpretation.

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  4. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 12:00 PM

    I like the point that you made about ambiguity “adding more meaning to the piece than writer intended.” Many times, writers set out with an intent to share their story and along the way they become so engrossed and connected that unintentionally they create masterpieces of symbolism. When we readers sit down to discuss the meaning of this vivid scene and that display of dialogue, we tend to find meaning and connections to unintentional literary beauty. Not always do the color descriptions indicate emotion or nature scenes reflect the inner conflict between the major characters, but a seasoned reader (or perhaps a desperate student) will find and identify deeper meanings.

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