Written Task WRITTEN TASK 2 help please

[ACh]

im going to write WT2 on the old man and the sea i ve chosen the first question: How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

please help me with 2 different types of reader, i just have no idea

[Blackcurrant]

Ok, main thing is to think in terms of easily identifiable reader "communities". Do not think in terms of individual people with their own idiosyncratic opinions.

One example of a community of readers is the "feminist" readers and though you will find plenty of variation within this group, it is composed of readers who share are particularly aware /alive to gender issues and read with an eye to how these questions and issues are played out in a work. Roughly, anyway.

Hemingway is esp. richly discussed as a "macho" writer and represents women in many of his stories in particular ways. It makes for rich interpretation. Thus the feminist reading.

Some students cast a much wider net and discuss "Western" readers and "eastern /oriental" but I think this will lead to stereotypes and gross generalizations. The reader (represented by a group ) you choose should be particular and identifiable.

Having said that...

What you choose will depend partly on the work. You could take a more general group, less obviously focused than the previous example

For instance, when studying Albert Camus' _The Stranger_ a good choice of two different readers could be an Algerian reader and French (non-Algerian) reader at the time Camus wrote this work. Algerians would probably be more likely to notice the silences in Camus text and the apparent lack of interest in the Algerian native population, though the text involves the murder of an Algerian man by a pied-noir French colonialist. You could also apply a post-colonial reading to this work, as a reader who is identifiably part of the group "post-colonial reader".

Does this help?

Edited October 9, 2013 by Blackcurrant

[ACh]

Blackcurrant,

yes, now i understand it much better!

and can it be like people who think pride is good and who think pride is a sin?

[Blackcurrant]

Well, broadly yes-- but that could be anyone.... You still need to think in terms of two clearly identifiable, ideologically-different groups. For example, one kind of reader that would think of pride as a sin would be a Puritan. The other... I am not sure in this case. A modern father/mother? A bit broad...

What I mean by "identifiable" is that there is a *verifiable* basis (historical, social or sociological, religious, ideological, gendered...one, or any combination, of these) for this distinction. In other words you can point to a reader and say this kind of reader would likely read in such a way based on what we know of the historical, political, sociological ideas of this group. So Algerian readers reading Camus Stranger in the 1940s could constitute such a group. However, these came to mind immediately not because of this, but because the text offers itself so obviously to opposing readings by French (non-Algerian) and Algerian (French, colonized ...)

But to make things simpler: Who is Hemingway's "ideal reader"? Who does the text speak to, primarily? Chances are, more of the male readers will like Hemingway's works and identify with his characters than female readers. You have to ask why.

Hemingway offers you a heavily masculine perspective (among other things... ) of the world. And that for you suggests a gendered reading. Gender itself is a very broad category, but gendered readings are verifiable and documented. Feminist readings of texts have offered lots of analytical tools for this kind of reading- a resistant reading. Again, all documented and verifiable. You can point to a reader (male or female) and say "you are offering a gendered reading of Hemingway based on the thinking of a well-researched and clearly identifiable group of people - feminists. ".

Just for fun, try saying this to someone . You'll sound uncannily like Commander Data.

Is this useful?

Edited October 11, 2013 by Blackcurrant