As a reader and as a teacher of introductory reading and writing courses, I
am persuaded by the concept of a genuine authority in which all readers both
value and seek to examine their early readings of texts. What I have come to
regard as a pretended authority or mastery, on the other hand, is troubling to me
as a teacher and reader. This more traditional way of reading and writing, in which
readers seek to "find" an author's "meaning" and to communicate this meaning with
an assured and knowing voice, has seemed in my experience as both an instructor
and student to ignore or brush over the real complexity in both written texts and in
the texts of students' and others' lives.
In spite of my belief in the importance and efficacy of a questioning rather
than a masterful authority, I sometimes, in my teaching and reading and writing,
still search for and value what I perceive as author's meanings. I have encountered
this tendency in many of my students, as well, and in many of my own past reading
and writing teachers; tradition has deeply lodged in us the looming image of the
Great Author, and the notion that we must master this author's meanings to be
successful readers of their texts. Perhaps one of the most powerful dilemmas
facing instructors of reading and writing courses--a dilemma which helps to shape
this thesis--is that of fostering an authority based on self-valuing, self-conscious
reading while at the same time communicating to readers that the texts we are
reading can be as complex as the meanings we make of them. While the formal,
institutionalized authority of authors must be challenged by all readers, these
authors' genuine authority as writers--as makers of meaning like ourselves and our
students--must be respected as we respect our own developing and individual
authority. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35734 |
| Date | 08 July 1993 |
| Creators | Love, Jennifer Mary |
| Contributors | Ede, Lisa |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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