"[I]n the case of successful authorial reading, the author and readers are members of the same community, so while the reader does in fact engage in an act of production, he or she makes what the author intended to be found."Obviously, I am not from the deep South of the 1960's. And I'm not exactly sure who Harper Lee was hoping to have read her book. And I know this isn't necessarily reading the text in an explicitly different way from how I usually read a novel, but I think I'll start by trying it this way: reading it as if I were a member of the white middle class in the deep South in the 1960's.
What do you think? Is this going to be any different from the way I read now?
After you told me the other day after class that you were reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' I thought about if for a second and it just kind of made sense. Sometimes you're talking to someone and get a feel for them and then they tell you their name and it clicks, it makes sense. Their name totally fits them. It was like that when you said you were reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. So you may not have to worry about your different background, because of an innate, intangible perspective that seems to fit Harper Lee and this work.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a really interesting idea. I also think that it is going to be super difficult. I think that if you can put yourself totally in the mindset then you could get a lot out of it. I really like the idea that Dr. Burton had of creating another persona for yourself and writing and reading from that point of view. Good luck tell us how it goes!
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