After reading the Appendix: Critical Approaches for Interpreting Literature written by Elizabeth McMahan in the text Literature and the Writing Process, I have learned that the Reader Response approach and the Biographical approach were the most appealing to me. The Reader Response approach I find is appealing because it is the more practical, you read and have your own personal understanding of what a piece of writing means. As you grow up, you mature and have more life experiences so that understanding grows and is completely different then what you thought even a year or two ago. No matter how many times you read something you may never get the same meaning out of it. This approach lets a reader use their own life experiences and lessons, views, and beliefs come up with different meanings.
The Biographical approach is the method that lets the writer bring their own texts and personal experiences into the piece of writing. It makes the piece more dramatic and have a feel of what it was like and the emotions the writer the had. This approach makes writing more personal and more understanding.
In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" in the text Literature and the Writing Process, the author is talking about the hard work his father faced everyday of the week and even sundays, "rest days" back then, but it didnt change anything. The author would be up waiting for a call to help his father. I think this poem is a good example of the Reader Response approach becuase he put his own point of view into this poem and the difference of being a kid and growing up, you would have different observations of what a cold Sunday morning would be like.
Thanks Candace.
ReplyDeleteYour focus on Reader Response and on a Biographical approach points out something that is important to remember about literature. Literature--whether it's poetry, stories, plays, essays, songs--is a kind of communication. In the end, literature is about people talking to each other.