Thesis (MEd (Education and Social Science))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / The purpose of this study is to discover the critical reader-responses of Grade 4 children to a novel written by Judy Blume (1980). The theoretical framework is based on the socio-cultural theories of learning, as well as Rosenblatt's critical reader response theory (1986). I examine the following issues: Cambourne's (2004) principles of engagement, Feuersteins' Mediated Learning Experience (1991), Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (1978), Erikson's Industry versus Inferiority (in Boeree, 2006), as well as Scaffolding (Vygotsky in Olivier 2010, 22-23). The literature review includes the most recent published literature pertaining to my research. Video interviews, as well as reflective journalling were used to gather data. My research answers the following research question: What are the critical reader responses of Grade 4 children to Superfudge, by Judy Blume? My argument, based on Rosenblatt's critical reader-response theory (1986) accurately reflected the manner in which the Grade 4 children rnade meaning of prescribed texts. My data was analysed qualitatively, using an inductive approach. In my findings five themes emerged: finding an authentic voice, gaining identity, the entertainment value of the novel, family dynamics with specific reference to siblings and the relocation of families. The discussion examines insights which emerged from my research. These insights are reviewed in relation to my theoretical frames and relevant literature. In conclusion the process of critical reader-response theory empowers children to develop critical thinking skills and habits that underlie effective reading.

Orientador: Eni de Lourdes Puccinelli Orlandi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T00:22:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Zen_TaniaMariaCampos_D.pdf: 4524630 bytes, checksum: 4c3d489f80fdcc91191455210df2e4eb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A construção do sujeito-leitor na crônica fotográfica tem como objetivos verificar a construção do sujeito-leitor no discurso da crônica fotográfica jornalística, procurando observar as marcas discursivas que conferem ao enunciado a dimensão de leitura e interpretação e não de transparência do discurso e mostrar os processos discursivos na textualidade considerada não só pela materialidade lingüística, mas também pela fotografia. Para tanto, sustentamos nossas reflexões na Análise de discurso de linha francesa. Essa abordagem da crônica, enquanto objeto de estudo, deve-se ao fato de que ela se apresenta como prática significante do espaço urbano que produz sentidos e que vai definir o brasileiro, o cidadão paulistano. Dessa perspectiva, a crônica fotográfica consiste em fonte importante para a produção de um discurso constituído em um determinado sujeito, em um determinado tempo e espaço sobre um acontecimento. Sob esse enfoque, voltando-nos para os aspectos sociais dos textos, examinamos a crônica fotográfica, mais precisamente as crônicas divulgadas pelo jornal O Estado de São Paulo, produzidas e editadas a partir de 1990 no caderno Cidades. Nesse Caderno, o tema das crônicas está centrado em acontecimentos do cotidiano urbano. Desse modo, nossa análise permitiu-nos identificar dois mecanismos de funcionamento do discurso de nosso objeto de análise: a determinação e a explicação. O sujeito-leitor é interpelado ideologicamente no discurso da crônica-fotográfica de maneira dissimulada, pois as marcas de presença não são marcadas no ¿fio discursivo¿. Entre o sujeito-leitor e o cidadão da foto produz-se a identificação pela reversibilidade de papéis que permite que o sujeito-leitor, imaginariamente, o lugar do outro.Como prática significante do espaço urbano que a provê de sentidos, a crônica fotográfica promove, pelo funcionamento discursivo, o reconhecimento no sujeito-leitor e, desse modo, vai definindo o paulistano / Abstract: The construction of the subject-reader in the photographic chronicle aims to check the construction of the subject-reader in the discourse of photographic-chronicle in the newspaper observing the marks of utterance which enable the sentence its dimension of reading and interpretation and not the transparence of discourse and show the process of discourse in the textuality considered not only for its linguistic materiality, but also for its photography. For this reason, our reflections are based on the French Discourse Analysis. This approach concerning the chronicle stems from the fact that it produces meanings in the urban space which can define the Brazilian citizen. On this perspective, the photographic chronicle consists of an important source of such a discourse presented in one subject in a certain time and space and in an event. Under this approach and addressing to the social aspects in the texts, we have examined the photographic chronicle portrayed in O ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO as of 1990 in the supplement called CIDADES, whose theme is centered in the urban happenings of the city. The study of the photographic chronicle published in the newspaper O ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO, in the supplement CIDADES made us understand how the construction of the subject-reader in this kind of discourse is formed through the marks of utterance which give the sentence the dimension of reading and interpretation and not the transparence of discourse. It also allowed us observe the discursive processes of textuality considered not only by the linguistic elements but also by photographic features / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutor em Linguística

This research is based on the hypothesis that response-based approaches to teaching literature and an outcomes-based system of education (OBE) are conceptually incompatible. This thesis claims that reader response involves processes that cannot be accommodated pedagogically within a system based on pre-determined outcomes. Furthermore, the kind of assessment prescribed by OBE is inappropriate to the nature of reader response. The hypothesis is based on three main premises. The first is that each reader brings a highly individual and complex set of personal schemata to the reading of imaginative texts, and these schemata have a decisive influence on the nature of a reader’s response. This means that response during imaginative engagements with literary texts tends to be idiosyncratic, and therefore largely unpredictable. Because of this, it would be inappropriate for a teacher, working within an OBE system, to try to teach towards pre-selected outcomes and to attempt to ensure that these outcomes, based on responses to literary texts, are in fact achieved. The second premise is that readers’ imaginative engagements with literary texts are essentially hidden events, which even the individual reader cannot fully bring to the surface and articulate. Because they are complex, and to some extent inaccessible, it would be inappropriate to assess the processes of response in the form of tangible evidence that a particular kind of response has taken place, or an outcome achieved. The third premise is that responses need time to grow and develop and do not merely happen quickly and cleanly. Consequently, aesthetic response, already a complex and inaccessible process, has no clearly distinguishable beginnings or endings. It would therefore be inappropriate to try to pinpoint the exact nature and parameters of a particular response or fragment it into a discrete unit of competence or knowledge. A two-dimensional problem emerges. The first is a conceptual one: whether there is an inherent tension between encouraging response to imaginative literature on the one hand, and accepting the rationale for OBE, on the other. The second dimension of the problem is empirical: whether teachers of literature experience any tension of either a conceptual or a practical nature when following response based approaches within the OBE system of Curriculum 2005, and if so, what they do in order to cope. In exploring the conceptual problem, the argument of this thesis is supported by reception theory and reader response criticism. The former provides key theoretical principles and insights that illuminate the nature of aesthetic reading, while the latter describes and analyses the nature, extent and manifestations of response in educational contexts, underpinned by both reception theory and empirical research. Together they offer evidence that personal response is determined by a complex range of processes, and is the core activity in reading for aesthetic purposes. This thesis also examines the conceptual basis and the structure of OBE as interpreted in both Curriculum 2005 and the revised National Curriculum Statement. The purpose of this is to establish the extent to which the philosophy and modus operandi of these curricula are rooted in notions of competence, and the requirement that learners give tangible demonstrations of pre-determined outcomes being achieved. If it is found that the curricula do lean heavily on pre-determined outcomes in regard to competencies that must be demonstrated, it may be concluded that 1) reader response activities are incompatible with OBE in a South African context, and 2) the potential exists for such incompatibility to create obstacles to creative and effective literature teaching. This can lead to difficulties for the teacher, who will then have to adopt acceptable strategies to cope with the situation. These strategies may ultimately be to the detriment of the pupils, particularly if the teacher seeks a compromise between genuine response and the kinds of activities that would yield precise, palpable measures of attainment that can be easily demonstrated. Exploring the empirical dimension of the problem involves investigating the responses of both teachers and teacher trainers to the experience of promoting response-based literature teaching and learning in an OBE environment. In order firstly investigated whether the practitioners do encourage reading response as a core activity in reading for aesthetic purposes. The extent to which practitioners have a sound grasp of the conceptual issues relevant to this research is also investigated. Insight into such issues depends on teachers and teacher trainers understanding the nature of reader response, on the one hand, and the rationale and structures of the relevant OBE curricula, on the other. Whether, and to what extent, practitioners experience tensions through their awareness of conceptual incompatibilities is also investigated. It should be borne in mind that practitioners work in real contexts in which a variety of complex factors play a role in determining how they respond to pressures from the environment. It cannot therefore be expected that teachers and others involved in delivering the curriculum will be able to reflect on purely conceptual issues without being influenced to an extent by more practical or logistical considerations. However, this study argues that the extent to which they are able to identify the relevant factors that affect the conceptual underpinnings of their practice will determine the degree to which their responses support the argument of this thesis. Together, the empirical and the theoretical findings offer qualitative evidence that should illuminate the nature and extent of the problem.

Certain approaches in the discipline Psychology, use the term narrative to describe how they work. Upon investigation one finds that the term narrative is seldom informed from Literary Theory, the background from which it originated. Instead, other disciplines that were also influenced by Literary Theory are invariably used as a means of cross fertilisation, e.g. the work of Geertz from an anthropologist background. Therapists make use of techniques described in the theories in an attempt to come to an understanding of the interactions in the therapy session. Some of the later theories emanating from Literary Theory appear to very useful for opening new ways of research in psychology, especially because some of them already come from an interdisciplinary background. This research attempts to identify useful theories and then apply them within a hermeneutical background in a therapeutical session. Theoretical work on ambiguity, recent research on foregrounding and defamiliarization and also the research in psychonarratology appear to be eminently useful for coming to a deeper understanding of the processes that take place in a therapeutic environment. It is thought that these theories could be of use because they have been 'tested' against the experiences of real readers reading texts. As novels differ from reports and washing lists, therapeutic settings differ from discussions. A novel is a cultivated variant of a report, and a therapeutic conversation is a cultivated version of a chat. These theories then, were applied to a real therapeutic session. The therapists who participated were interviewed on the session and on their reactions to certain 'readings' made by them during the session. The purpose of the interview was to obtain an understanding of their interpretation of what had happened during that session. The questions, reactions, observations and reflections of the session constitute the text of this research. The generated text was then reread from the perspective of each of the theories. The data was collected and interpreted. The interpretation focusses on the therapists 'reading' or understanding of the session and in the process, leads the therapists and researcher to further levels of understanding. In conclusion, it was found that the theories were indeed useful as they were able to point out how certain stylistics of language and situation in the therapeutic session had led to hermeneutic or interpretive processes and also how these processes were perceived or experienced on reflection by the therapists.

This study has examined reader reviews that focuses on the novel Fifty shades of Grey. Through discourse analysis and the theories of Magnus Persson and Judith Butler the study has answered the question about why the readers read romance and erotica from their own point of view. The study aims to add tot he librarians ”critical look” based in gender theory and criticaltheory about literary taste when it comes to making selection choices. This study shows that the readers mainly verifies Butler`s heterosexual matrix by appealing to a heteronormative discourse and Perssons explanations as to why women read romance, i.e in a way more focused on feelings opposed to the more male and academically coded intellectual perspective, although there are some exceptions, for example interpretations that allows for a more disruptive gender reading. There are also examples of readers who have a more distanced and intellectual reading.

This study analyzed the reader's relationship to the sounds embedded in a written text for the purpose of identifying those sounds' contribution to the reader's interpretation of that text. To achieve this objective, this study negotiated Heideggerian phenomenology, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, linguistics, and musicology into a reader response theory, which was then applied to Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." This study argues that the orchestration of sounds in "The Raven" forces its reader into a regression, which the reader then represses, only to carry the resulting sound-image // away from the poem as a psychic scar.

"Response to literature" is an educational notion which generally refers to an oral or written reaction to a non-expository published work such as a short story or poem. This historical analysis investigates conceptions of response to literature in research with adults and college students. The dissertation problem derives from an apparent shift in emphasis from the text towards the reader in research on response to literature (Purves, 1985). The underlying assumption of this suggestion is that there are historically predominant research conceptions. This dissertation documents these ideas with adult and college readers' responses to literature. The procedure was first to establish foundation conceptions of "response" and "literature" from theoretical considerations of these terms. Next, studies derived from major bibliographies were examined in order to determine the general emphasis based on the research purpose, literary work, and response task. Predominant research conceptions of both "response" and "literature" were delineated by decades, from the first cited study in 1912. Results of the analysis concerned conceptions of both "literature" and "response". First, research conceptions of "literature" generally focused on print, rather than oral performance. In addition, there was a general research move from the use of meaningless syllables and fragments of poetry (1910-39); through the use of a diversity of genres such as newspaper articles, comprehension test items, and novels (1940-69); to a contemporary focus on short stories and poems (1970-89). Second, research conceptions of "response" supported the suggestion of a general shift from conceptions which focused on textual elements such as rhythm, sounds of language and literary merit (1920-39); through those which focused on aspects of the reader such as personality changes, preferences and developmental differences (1940-69) ; to those which emphasized elements of response itself such as process, stance, and context (1970-89). Possible reasons for the shifts in emphasis were explored in relation to general societal conditions and the changing image of the college student. From an educational perspective, the observed changes suggest a move towards empowerment of the learner in the classroom. This trend corresponds to the increasing pedagogical emphasis on holism and collaboration / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

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The "dramatic monologue" is curiously named, given that poems of this genre often feature characters not only listening to the speakers but responding to them. While "silent auditors," as such inscribed characters are imperfectly called, are not a universal feature of the genre, their appearance is crucial when it occurs, as it turns monologue into dialogue. The scholarly attention given to such figures has focused almost exclusively upon dramatic monologues by Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, and other male poets and has consequently never illustrated how gender influences the attitudes toward and outcomes of communication as they play out in dramatic monologues. My dissertation thus explores how Victorian and modernist female poets of the dramatic monologue like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Augusta Webster, Amy Levy, and Charlotte Mew stage the relationships between the female speakers they animate and the silent auditors who listen to their desperate utterances. Given the historical tensions that surrounded any woman's speech, let alone marginalized women, the poets perform a remarkably empathetic act in embodying primarily female characters on the fringes of their social worlds--a runaway slave, a prostitute, and a modern-day Mary Magdalene, to name a few--but the dramatic monologues themselves end, overwhelmingly, in failures of communication that question the ability of dialogue to generate empathetic connections between individuals with radically different backgrounds. Silent auditors often bear the scholarly blame for such breakdowns, but I argue that the speakers reject their auditors at pivotal moments, ultimately participating in their own marginalization. The distrust these poems exhibit toward the efficacy of speaking to others, however, need not extend to the reader. Rather, the genre of the dramatic monologue offers the poets a way to sidestep dialogue altogether: by inducing the reader to inhabit the female speaker's first-person voice--the "mobile I," in Èmile Benveniste's terms--these dramatic monologues convey experience through role-play rather than speech, as speaker and reader momentarily collapse into one body and one voice. Such a move foregrounds sympathetic identification as a more powerful means of conveying experience than empathetic identification and the distance between bodies and voices it necessitates.

Since its establishment, the study of environmental literature has included a great deal of research which has based its arguments on assumptions that state that climate fiction contains persuasive elements that are impactful on readers. The problem with these assumptions is that they do not offer any empirical proof to demonstrate their arguments. This thesis offers an empirical study of the reception of Lydia Millet’s short story “Zoogoing” and examines whether or not the story is able to generate an animal welfare consciousness in the context of climate change within an audience that includes 10 participants from Bahrain. This project was conducted via two surveys on SurveySparrow, one before and the other after the participants had read the story. From the findings, it was revealed that the extinction narrative was able to help the readers conceptualize future ecological possibilities. Although the narrative was able to heighten the participants’ consciousness about environmental destruction, their concern for animal conservation remained the same. What was speculated from the analysis in this thesis was that the story had lacked a representation of animals that would focus the participants’ gaze on animal extinction.