Area

of Exploration (AoE):
Readers, Writers, & Texts

Literature, like all other art, is something created by an artist out of his or her experience and
world view, and it conveys something—ideas, values, beliefs, and/or emotions—to the person
who engages with the work of art. Literature gives the reader a window into the mind and
heart of the author.

An additional important feature of literature is that, in writing a literary work, the author
shapes reality to a purpose. Instead of giving us the story or the facts for their own sake,
authors of literature use the story or the facts to make a larger point; he or she takes an idea
or a simple story and elevates it. In doing so, literary texts communicate richer truths about
what it is like to be human and what being human means. One primary feature of literature,
then, is that literature elevates experiences to the universal.

INQUIRY QUESTIONS:

1. Why and how do we study literature?

We study literature to keep things alive; things like culture, meaningful stories, morality,
lessons, memories, history: all these things have the ability to transcend lifetimes and
worlds through being recorded in literature. We also study literature for the simple
enjoyment of being regaled by a compelling tale, or to appreciate human creativity and
aesthetic ability. We study in groups, individually, through classes, discussions by looking at
the context of the text, the plot of the text, the words of the text, and the implications of the
text.

2. How are we affected by literary texts in various ways?

We are affected by literature in emotional ways -ex: Sydney Carton’s death was a true
tearjerker, whether they were drops of happiness or despondency-, intellectual ways -ex: we
often ponder the reasons behind revenge when reading T2C- or spiritually -religious texts
are the foundations of religion.

3. In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed, and interpreted?

Meaning is constructed and expressed through style, plot, references, and other meta
elements. Meaning is negotiated between readers and writers when readers accept certain
truths or logics that apply to the text’s universe. Meaning is also negotiated based on how
the author writes, whether he is de inite about certain meanings or more ambiguous.
Meaning is interpreted through comparisons, linear thinking, meta thinking, discussions,
and understanding context.
4. How does language use vary amongst literary forms and genres?

Certain genres and literary forms employ certain types of language with certain amounts,
since each genre is attempting to create a certain mood. For example, Romantic literature
includes a lot of lowery, dramatic language while realism literature includes toned, detailed
language.

5. How does the structure or style of a literary text affects meaning?

The structure can de ine meaning, such as abstract works that are nonlinearly told. Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf f or example derives a lot of its shocking meaning and ending from
the absurdist theater structure of it. Structure allows meaning to be expressed in a certain
format, overall affecting it a lot.

6. How do literary texts offer insights and challenges?

Insight of a certain culture, location, or time period can be given by reading literary texts
that are a product of such things. LIterary texts offer insight into the author’s view of such
situations, revealing much about them and the author in the process. Literary texts can
provide challenges by forcing readers to think about or come to terms with a reality or
theme. They can also challenge readers to contextualize, critically think, or choose sides of a
debate.

Why we study literature:

Apart from the fact that literature can entertain us, touch us, make us think, and provide
new insights, literature is primarily an art form, meant to provide an aesthetic experience to
the viewer. In most contexts, “aesthetic” means “beautiful,” but for this course it will imply a
sense of beauty that derives from our experiencing a powerful emotional response to the
work of art. When we say that literature appeals to our sense of the aesthetic, therefore, we
are talking about the fact that art is that which speci ically aims to touch us in ways beyond
the purely rational.

Even further, art exists primarily from the desire to share our perceptual experiences with
each other, to ind out how the world seems to be to other people, and to determine
whether what we experience is like what other experience or how it might be different.

How we study literature:

Readers rely on their prior knowledge and world experience when trying to comprehend a
text. It is this organized knowledge that is accessed during reading that is referred to as
schema (plural: schemata ). Readers make use of their schema when they can relate what
they already know about a topic to the facts and ideas appearing in a text. The richer the
schema is for a given topic, the better a reader will understand the topic.

However, the writer writes the text with an idea in mind of a person who will read it. That
person is the “implied reader.” Likewise, the reader reads the text and gets an idea of what
kind of person wrote it. That person is the “implied writer.”

The “implied writer” is a person who knows all the words in the text, who cares about all of
the ideas, who has the kind of imagination needed to create the text, who knows the history,
literature, religion, and culture needed to create the metaphors, symbols, images, and so on.
The “implied reader” of the text is someone who can perfectly understand all that the
author intended, who knows all the words, history, literature, religion, and culture implied
by the text. He or she is someone who can understand all the nuances that the author
intended. However, both the “implied writer” and “implied reader” are idealistic and nearly
impossible to reconcile together; yet, it is your goal as the reader to become as near as
possible to the “implied reader” for every text we encounter.

Real Writer Implied Writer The Text Implied Reader Real Reader
→ → ← ←

Challenges to being the “implied reader”:

1. Appropriate background knowledge (schema) for the reader to be able to understand the
work;
2. Enough of a shared worldview between the reader and the writer to be able to effectively
communicate ideas.

*The knowledge required for a reader to be able to interpret a literary work effectively
includes, irst and foremost, knowledge of language—vocabulary! We must be able to
comprehend the vocabulary of any work before we can begin to interpret the underlying
nuances and meanings.

Practice Activity:

Ø Symbols and Nuances: Read and analyze “The Gift,” by Li Young-Lee

Varying language use amongst literary forms and genres:

There are two main functions of language use in poetry: 1) the primary function is artistic,
that elevates thinking through compressed and complex language that usually always has
more than one meaning, such as through symbols and metaphors; 2) the secondary
function is the poetry allows the reader to understand the author, whether that be through
tone, or through the conspicuous voices either of the narrator or characters. Unique
elements of this genre to analyze include: lyrical poetry vs. narrative poetry, igurative
language, meter, rhyme scheme, poetic structure, tone, allusions, symbols, etc.

Practice Activities:

Ø Artistic Function: Read and analyze “Bread,” by Kamau Brathwaite

Ø Characterization of Speaker: Read and analyze “My Last Duchess,” by Robert

2. Prose Fiction:

Unlike poetry, prose iction is not required to capture immense meaning through dense
compression, for the genre has plenty of space and time for the author to tell a story with
all the details desired, though this form of communication is still indirect between the
mediated narrator and the reader. Different aspects to analyze in this genre include:
epigraph, titles, setting, plot, con lict, characterization, mood, tone, language, motifs,
symbolism, foreshadowing, frame story, etc.

3. Prose Non-Fiction:

However similar to prose iction, non- iction texts primarily rely on realistic language when
retelling an actual event. Because these pieces of literature must necessarily be realistic,
non- iction writers cannot use language to create non-realistic or fantastical setting or
situations; yet, they can use language to help readers understand characters, and they use
language to incorporate artistic elements into the work. We will be studying the non- iction
essays of Joan Didion next semester to examine how she utilizes rhetoric for speci ic purposes.

4. Graphic Novels:

Graphic novels or non- iction works use language in conjunction with images to convey
meaning. Often the images convey more than the words do directly, and the words are
primarily used as support or guidance to interpret the images. We will be studying the
graphic novel, “Persepolis,” next semester to analyze different elements of this genre,
including: layout, frames, panels, graphic weight, shading and color, dialogue, etc.

5. Dramas:

Vastly different from the other four forms of literature, plays rely primarily on dialogue in
order to convey meaning. While language in drama can do all of the things that language
accomplishes in the other literary forms, it also means that an author must rely mainly on
dialogue to develop and reveal characterization, as well as drive the plot. Speci ic elements
of dramas that we will be analyzing through “A Doll’s House” this semester include: the
standard play arc, con licts, orthography, stage setting, act plot structure, characterization,
symbols, tone, etc.

How meaning is constructed, negotiated, expressed, and interpreted in literature:

The four elements of construction, negotiation, expression, and interpretation are the
different forms of intentional communication between an author and a reader.

“Constructed” and “expressed” refer to the author’s role in transferring a meaning to the
reader. The author constructs the text in a deliberate and conscious process, as well as
actively expresses their ideas through all of the literary techniques that have been
previously discussed: use of a particular narrator, choice of setting, ordering of plot,
structure of text, syntax, images, symbols, tones, igurative language, etc. Going
hand-in-hand, the term “interpreted” refers to the reader’s role in the transaction between
the author and the reader, with the obligation of interpreting the author’s intentions by
working at understanding what the author has done in order to construct meaning.

However, the inal term, “negotiated,” suggests that two parties work together, going back
and forth, to come to an agreement about something. We can think of this similar to the job
of creating a bridge between a reader and writer of any work as a negotiation in the sense
that the author lays down his or her version of the story and its implications, and then the
reader engages with that version in an effort to understand it. What makes the process
similar to a negotiation is that we can be certain that the author’s intention will never be
fully realized exactly as he or she thought in his or her head. Such an outcome is actually
impossible—for no reader has the same exact worldview, knowledge, or life experiences as
the author. Authors and readers, therefore, always differ in what they know and how they
will experience the world. The meaning, then, that any given reader will construct from a
literary work is going to be different to some degree from what the author meant to express
(think back to “implied reader” vs. “real reader”).

Practice Activity:
 Ø Negotiating Interpretation: Read and analyze “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel

Ø Constructing Meaning: Read and analyze “Poem,” by Elizabeth Bishop

Conclusion:

Have you ever read a piece of literature when younger and then re-read it a few years later
to surprisingly ind new insights, personal connections, and themes? This is because
literary texts are crafted so richly that no single reading can reveal all there is to know
about them. If you re-read a text, you will discover more than you did the irst time. If you
re-read it after a signi icant amount of time has passed, you will probably know
signi icantly more about the world, and you may very well understand life and humanity in
a new light. If you discuss that piece of literature with others who read it out of their
perspectives from their own life experiences, you will learn about new ideas that you may
have missed yourself. Because it is the nature of literature to be resilient, it allows for an
ever-expanding vision to arise out of our approach to it. This makes it a true art form, and
that is what makes it a joy to study.

Analysis Activity: Authorial Choice and Discovering Meaning within a Text

Ø Watch this lecture by Thomas Lewandowski and take notes!!

Possible Links to TOK:

Links to TOK in this area revolve around the question of what kind of knowledge can be
constructed from a text, how that knowledge is constructed and the extent to which the
meaning of a text can be considered ixed:

1. What do we learn about through the study of a literary text? How is this different from
what we learn through the study of a non-literary text?
We learn the aesthetic styles and ways of writing a compelling story when we study
literature text. We learn how to captivate readers with words and papers, and may
conversely be captivated by memorable stories.
2. In what ways is the kind of knowledge we gain from the study of language and literature
different from the kind we gain through the study of other disciplines?
The study of literature distinguishes itself from the study of other disciplines because it
involves both technical and creative aspects in a way that creates something cohesive and
enjoyable. It also distinguishes itself by being the primary study concerned with language
and words.
3. Can the study of language and of literature be considered scienti ic?
The study of literature cannot be considered scienti ic, because the conclusions of literature
are not founded in imperial, objective truth like those of science are. The scienti ic method
applies to sciences because such concepts can be observed, tested, and objectively stated as
being true. Although nothing is absolute, though on the absolute spectrum, certain things
are more towards the absolute end than others: AKA the comparison of science and
literature. Literature is founded in opinion, hence, compared to science, it isn’t as objective,
meaning it is not scienti ic.

4. How much of the knowledge we construct through reading a text is determined by

5. Are some interpretations of a text better than others? How are multiple interpretations
best negotiated?
No interpretation is better than others. Of course there are some interpretations that more
people subscribe to, but that doesn’t mean that they are the say all be all interpretations, or
that they are better. Multiple interpretations are best negotiated through discussion,
respect, and acceptance.

6. In what ways do interpretive strategies vary when reading a literary work and when
reading a non- literary text?
Depending on certain genres, the amount of speech, the style in which the piece was
written, and many other factors, interpretation strategies change, either becoming very
de inite, confused, abstract, or meta.

Our Final Activity:

Civilization as we know it has been destroyed and only a select remaining people have the
ability to escape in a life raft. However, due to limited space and weight, you are only
allowed to bring ONE piece of literature with you to help reestablish humanity and the
literary arts.

Therefore, choose one book that you believe is indispensable to human civilization and
understanding, and write a concise one page argument that de ines its literary, humanistic,
moral, philosophical, religious, etc. contributions that make it worth saving amongst all
other pieces of literature. Also, be mindful of the 7 Course Concepts and the Global Issues
that we have previously discussed. Bring BOTH the novel and your argument with you to
class tomorrow and prepare to debate!
The goal for this activity is to re lect on the different aspects of R
eaders, Writers, and Texts
from this Area of Exploration and to determine what makes a piece of literature a truly
valuable and aesthetic art form worth studying and cherishing.

Guidelines:
● Minimum of ONE page
● Include: four-part heading (name, class, teacher, & date), 12 size font, Times New
Roman, double spaced, & creative title
● Make a clear argument of why your text is superior to all other pieces of literature
● Make a clear connection to one or more GLOBAL ISSUES
● Make a clear connection to one or more of the 7 CORE CONCEPTS
● Discuss a prevalent THEME and, if possible, the CRAFT or TECHNIQUE that supports it
(no quotes required for this assignment, though they always help!)
● Grammar: No run-ons or fragments; most sentences should be Compound-Complex