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.

I uppsatsen beskrivs två praktiker för lyrikläsning med 14–18–åriga skolelever:klassrumssamtal samt ett formulär för kreativ analys. Dessa praktiker ställs mot ettinteraktionellt synsätt som företräds av disciplinen receptionsestetik så som denna beskrivs avWolfgang Iser, ett transaktionellt synsätt som företräds av disciplinen reader–response theorymed Louise Rosenblatt som förgrundsfigur, samt disciplinen kognitiv poetik såsom dennabeskrivs av Peter Stockwell. Praktikerna jämförs också med rön inom forskningsområdetlitteraturpedagogik och –didaktik. I uppsatsen diskuteras interaktionella begrepp som tomrum, luckor ochläsanvisningar samt transaktionella begrepp som estetisk och efferent läsning. Den kognitivapoetiken jämförs framförallt med det transaktionella synsättet. Stort utrymme ges åt fråganom texten som responsförberedande struktur är gemensam för alla läsare. Begrepp från denpedagogiska och didaktiska forskningen som diskuteras är lässammanhang ochtolkningsgemenskap liksom autentiska och icke-autentiska frågor respektive öppna ochslutna. Tolkningsgemenskap ställs mot de informella maktstrukturer eller hierarkier somverkar i klassrumsdynamiken. Till sist behandlas frågan om hur litterär kompetens kanutvecklas.

This thesis explores why readers insist on interpreting Zehra Çirak's texts in light of her Turkish German background when she claims that her texts have little to do with her Turkish heritage and are more universally applicable. While readers can interpret her texts without considering the author's biography, thereby obtaining insights into their own personal identity, I suggest that it also makes sense for readers to interpret her texts with the author's biography in mind because of current events and the history of Turkish migrant labor in Germany. To explore different possible interpretations of her texts, I have categorized Çirak's poetry, found in four of her volumes of poetry, Vogel auf dem Rücken eines Elefanten (1991), Fremde Flügel auf eigener Schulter (1994), Leibesübungen (2000), and In Bewegung (2008), into two broad groups. First, I look at the few poems in which Çirak overtly addresses alterity by discussing the alienation of Turks. In these texts, the speakers use Turkish words or images that link the texts to Çirak's biography. Then I turn to look at poems that can only metaphorically be interpreted as addressing Turkish German integration into mainstream German society and discuss how even though the figurative language Çirak employs make her texts applicable to other situations or interpretations, the texts lend themselves to being read in light of multiculturalism. In both of these categories of poetry, Çirak uses metaphor to address alterity without pandering to stereotypes or setting categorical limits on Turks, Germans, or other members of her readership.

The intricate and complex writing style of Machado de Assis’ novel Dom Casmurro create a unique and powerfully engaging reader experience. While much has been discussed with regard to narratology and reader-response theory in Dom Casmurro, Machado’s writing recalls many principles found in the cross-disciplinary field of experience design. Through an analysis of the novel using flow and co-creation theories, we see that Machado designs an extraordinary reader experience through narrational scaffolding and co-creative invitations. These elements engage readers in challenging and immersive ways, ultimately encouraging readers to develop their reading capacity throughout their contact with the novel. In Dom Casmurro, Machado’s experiential writing enables readers to work together with the author to create two significant products: both the novel itself and—perhaps most important—the co-creative experience the novel facilitates.

No description available.

No description available.

Les théories et pensées de la lecture ont, au tournant du XXIe siècle, valorisé des approches pragmatiques de la lecture et de l’expérience qu’elle procure. De manière synchrone, le récit contemporain français réinvestit les figures de la lecture et du lecteur. Habituellement rattachées à une tradition parodique et anti-romanesque, elles constituent en fait une force de relance narrative et permettent de repenser les imaginaires littéraires et critiques de la lecture. À l’heure où la démocratisation des outils numériques semble transformer le rapport des sujets au livre et aux savoirs, interroger ces représentations dans les textes littéraires permet de mettre en évidence l’influence du numérique sur les pratiques de lecture comme les attitudes de la réception. Par leur manière d’impliquer le lecteur, de mettre en récit ou en abyme la lecture, et d’accueillir dans le livre de nouvelles figures de la réception, les textes du corpus dessinent et déclinent différents arts de lire. En faisant un objet de fiction du rapport des sujets aux signes qui les entourent ou les traversent, ces récits mettent à distance les méthodes de déchiffrement héritées des théories du texte et du moment formaliste de la théorie. Une pensée de la lecture s’élabore ainsi depuis les textes littéraires. Matière fictionnelle et narrative, elle fonctionne comme relance romanesque, et fait ressurgir la tentation critique d’une parole théorique des écrivains / Theories of reading and reader-response criticism have, since the turn of the 21st century, emphasized pragmatic approaches to reading and the reading experience. Meanwhile, contemporary French fiction has also been focusing on representations of reading and the reader. Although such representations are usually seen as part of a parodic, anti-novelistic tradition, they have in fact had a revitalizing impact on contemporary narratives and suggest new ways of looking at fictional and critical visions of reading. At a time when the democratization of digital tools seems to be revolutionizing the reading subject’s relationship to books and knowledge, a study of the representations of reading in literary texts can illuminate the impact of digital data on reading practices and reception. By devising new strategies of reader involvement and new embodiments of reception in the text, as well as by their fictionalization or mise en abyme of reading, the narratives of our corpus evolve and express new and diverse “arts of reading”. They turn our relationship to the signs in our world and in ourselves into fiction and thus call for a rethinking of our interpretive processes, away from classical hermeneutics and from formalist-inspired theories. Innovative thoughts and imaginings about literature are thus produced by literary texts themselves. They have a re-energizing impact on contemporary fiction and also explain why writers of fiction are once again lured into adopting theoretical discourses

This essay argues that literature enhances the discussions of sensitive issues in a Swedish EFL classroom. Building on reader-response theory and Judith A. Langer's envisionment building, the themes affinity, suicide and discrimination found in Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees could be discussed. The reader-response theory gives the pupils an emotional outlet that the envisionment builds on. However, the identified themes also need to be critically analysed to create rewarding discussions, and to be able to fulfil Langer's envisionment. This will hopefully make the pupils think more deeply about these social issues and question their own possible prejudices.

The Batman media franchise (comics, movies, novels, television, and cartoons) is unique because no other form of written or visual texts has as many artists, audiences, and forms of expression. Understanding the various artists and audiences and what Batman means to them is to understand changing trends and thinking in American culture. The character of Batman has developed into a symbol with relevant characteristics that develop and evolve with each new story and new author. The Batman canon has become so large and contains so many different audiences that it has become a franchise that can morph to fit any group of viewers/readers. Our understanding of Batman and the many readings of him gives us insight into ourselves as a culture in our particular place in history.

The question of the appropriateness and effectiveness of students' personal writing is a longstanding one in the academy. In composition studies, the ideological fight over personal and academic writing is most often represented by the oft-studied but rarely changed Bartholomae/Elbow debate. In literary studies, reader-response critics in particular have wrestled with the problems and possibilities of subjective interpretation. Yet despite scholastic interest in issues of personal writing, discussions have remained primarily theoretical and have relied mainly on anecdotal evidence. While small-scale case studies valuably illuminate the processes of an individual student or two, the conversation would be profoundly bolstered by empirical data. How common are personal responses, really? Further, while many believe that any presence of first-person pronouns signals personal, subjective writing, anecdotal cases suggest that there are several categories of personal writing, and that these different types of expressivism produce a range of rhetorical effects. The current study attempts to name and refine these categories--using the distinctions of General claim, Writer-based prose, Personal experience, and Personal claim—to begin to fill in this empirical gap. Is it a mistake to lump all use of personal reference into the category of "personal writing"? Would helping students distinguish between these varying types of personal references inform their stylistic and rhetorical choices? By reviewing a sample of 30 short papers written by college students in a general requirement literature survey course, I will examine how frequently--and in what ways--students reference themselves when responding in writing to a work of literature. / text