Common Module: Reading to Write
“Texts and Readings” in Reading Fiction
In the past texts were often thought about as they were a kind of container. Inside the containers were meanings. Readers looked, sometimes quite hard, to find the meanings in the containers. Reading was finding the “correct” meaning in each container, or text.
Recent literary theory, however, argues that texts are not containers with meanings “inside” them. Instead, texts are seen as polysemic or “multi-meaninged.” Reading, it is argued, produces the meanings of a text, which…are called readings.
Because texts are full of gaps, they can be read in different ways, and it is not possible to decide finally “what a text means.” A text can never be reduced to a single meaning, because there is no possibility of a neutral authority or judge to decide which reading is “correct.”
This doesn’t imply that a text can mean anything a reader likes. In theory texts have the potential to be read in endlessly different ways, but in practice, groups of readers produce a limited range of meanings, by valuing certain responses and disqualifying others.
Responding
In the past texts were often thought about as they were a kind of container. Inside the containers were meanings. Readers looked, sometimes quite hard, to find the meanings in the containers. Reading was finding the “correct” meaning in each container, or text.
Recent literary theory, however, argues that texts are not containers with meanings “inside” them. Instead, texts are seen as polysemic or “multi-meaninged.” Reading, it is argued, produces the meanings of a text, which…are called readings.
Because texts are full of gaps, they can be read in different ways, and it is not possible to decide finally “what a text means.” A text can never be reduced to a single meaning, because there is no possibility of a neutral authority or judge to decide which reading is “correct.”
This doesn’t imply that a text can mean anything a reader likes. In theory texts have the potential to be read in endlessly different ways, but in practice, groups of readers produce a limited range of meanings, by valuing certain responses and disqualifying others.
Responding
- To what extent does the extract accord with your experience of reading?
- Is this extract true of some texts more than others? Consider poetry and factual text
Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write – Annie Proulx
Listen to the CBC interview Sarah Polley “Fear of Margaret Atwood is a powerful thing”
Sarah Polley is the writer producer of Netflix series Alias Grace, she discusses reading this novel by Margaret Atwood at 18 and the powerful impact it made on her understanding of the world.
Sarah Polley is the writer producer of Netflix series Alias Grace, she discusses reading this novel by Margaret Atwood at 18 and the powerful impact it made on her understanding of the world.