Order 1422406: identification - solitary reading naturalistic study

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Week4-Solitaryreadinglectureslides.pptx

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Literature, Culture & Society Lecture 4: Solitary reading

Dr C. Harrison

Last week…

We considered the role of the implied reader in the reception of literature;

We explored the crossover/ young adult fiction genres – their content and readership;

We thought about the role of/ debates surrounding censorship in contemporary fiction;

Seminars

We explored the textual representation of the implied reader.

This week…

We will think about what is meant by the term ‘solitary reading’ and how it might be analysed;

We will consider the Costa-award winning experimental novel The Shock of the Fall as a case study;

Seminars

We will explore the ideas of identification and observation/distancing through a close analysis of particular language (stylistic) choices in the text and in reader reviews.

Solitary reading & text analysis

In solitary reading ‘the written literary text is the substance of the discourse; it is the language which cues text-worlds in the readers’ minds’ (Peplow et al. 2016: 37);

The language of the text determines which schemas readers need to draw on in order to comprehend the text;

The purpose of (cognitive) stylistic approaches to literature ‘is to explicate how the interplay between written text and reader results in a particular interpretation or emotional response to the extract under discussion’ (Peplow et al. 2016: 38; emphasis added).

Reading as an emotional experience: The Shock of the Fall

Costa award for best first novel

Experimental text: manipulates text and images

Central themes: grief, mental illness

Matt Homes, a 19-year-old schizophrenic struggling within the mental health system, is conducting his own writing therapy, urgently bashing out his thoughts on an old typewriter and interspersing them with letters, doodles and sketches. [The novel] is beautifully packaged, with drawings, varying typefaces and typographical tricks representing Matt's swelling bundle of papers. It is a gripping, exhilarating read.

(Feay 2014; Guardian review)

Nathan Filer was a mental health nurse

Experimental fiction

Destabilize the real world

Subvert a sense of the normal

Introduce debates about the status of the text and the act of writing

Present different world views

Have free playing voices none of which is privileged

Engage with the moving play of signifiers to construct endless cycles of meaning

Employ intrusion into the text by the narrator and/or author

Experiment with form and typography

Develop new ways of seeing

Apply multiple discourses

Mix and/ or subvert genres

Provoke the reader to consider new ideas and concepts

Imagine alternative realities

Use metaphoric qualities

Engage the reader on an intellectual/philosophical level

Deny closure (Armstrong 2014: 5)

‘Typographical tricks’

Also the PLEASE STOP READING OVER MY SHOULDER examples

Reading experience

How do these ‘experiments with form and typography’ impact on our experience of reading the novel?

Employ intrusion into the text by the narrator and/or author

Develop new ways of seeing

Destabilize the real world

Subvert a sense of the normal

Introduce debates about the status of the text and the act of writing

Develop new ways of seeing

Apply multiple discourses

Mix and/ or subvert genres

Provoke the reader to consider new ideas and concepts

Filer develops Matthew's character with immense sympathy and sensitivity and the simple prose is spot on as the plain, honest voice of a teenager. Comparisons with Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time are apt; both writers capture young people with aplomb, and describe illnesses of the mind in ways that convey the pain and confusion powerfully while maintaining dark humour. Peripheral characters are beautifully developed: Matthew's fussing mother, consumed by grief; his equally devastated but solid father; his doting grandmother; his friend Jacob who is unsure of how to deal with the mentally ill Matthew. Filer ratchets up the suspense masterfully: although we know early on that Simon dies, the build-up to finding out exactly how it happened is gripping.

(Sanai 2014; Observer)

Identification

Oatley (1999) talks about reading fiction as a type of meeting that takes place between reader and text. A reader can

Assume a role as a spectator (Oatley 1999: 445) (In other words, adopt a position external to story and that is unobserved by characters), or

Identify with a protagonist or character.

In identification the reader takes on the protagonist's goals and plans. The reader then also experiences emotions when these plans go well or badly […] The meeting of identification is a species of empathy, in which we do not merely sympathize with a person, we become that person.

(Oatley 1999: 445-446)

Identification: (aka. Psychological projection, self-implication, etc.)

Occurs when readers ‘take a cognitive stance within the world of the narrative and interpret the text from that perspective’ (Segal, 1995: 15)

A process of ‘re-anchoring’

Identification vs. Observation

(After Oatley 1999)

Texts can manipulate readers in order to invite reflection (observation) or a full emotional experience (identification).

How can texts encourage observation or identification?

Mode of text can impact this. Third person = reader is more distanced; first person = reader can identify more closely.

In the seminars we’ll be thinking about where reader reviews can be placed at different points along this cline

Text example (Third person; re-written)

Mum cleaned and dressed the wound, then she shouted at him, for putting Simon in such a horrible position. Dad shouted at him too. At one point they were both shouting together, so that he wasn’t even sure who to look at. This was the way it worked. Even though Matthew’s brother was three years older, it was always him who was responsible for everything. Matthew often resented him for that. But not this time. This time Simon was his hero.

Text example (First person; original)

Mum cleaned and dressed the wound, then she shouted at me, for putting Simon in such a horrible position. Dad shouted at me too. At one point they were both shouting together, so that I wasn’t even sure who to look at. This was the way it worked. Even though my brother was three years older, it was always me who was responsible for everything. I often resented him for that. But not this time. This time he was my hero.

How might we assess feelings of identification when we analyse reader response data?

Metaphors used by readers to talk about reading (Stockwell 2009; after Gerrig 1993):

Reading is transport

Reading is control

Reading is investment

Assessing identification Language analysis

Reading is transportation

Filer has an ear for the dark comedy of life, and Matthew is a charismatic lead character who draws you in even as his world falls apart’ (Observer Magazine)

I have never read anything quite like this book before, it is a unique experience traveling along in the mindset of a mentally ill young man (RR1; Goodreads)

It seems that, by pure coincidence, I have stumbled into a number of books regarding mental illness, however, the depiction that this book utilises is purely unique. (RR2; Goodreads)

The plot was often gearing towards how Simon died, which really could have been told from the very beginning seen as the story was told from the perspective of Matthew (who was a witness) (RR3; Goodreads)

Reading is control

However, it grabbed my attention and held it so that I read the work in a single day yet relished every word. (RR4; Goodreads)

I read the majority of this book within the last 24 hours. I just couldn’t stop reading and even neglected some of the stuff I should’ve been doing instead. Oops. (RR5; Goodreads)

I'm squite [sic] positive that this book will stay with me for a while. I feel helpless and at the same time devastated. (RR6; Goodreads)

I found the story a bit unsettling but at the same time it was a sort of addicting read. Once I started reading the book I had a hard time putting it down. I actually ended up reading 200 pages without stopping when I started it and after that it didn't take very long to finish it. Not many books manage to grip me like that, that's for sure (RR7; Goodreads)

Some further questions… (to pick up in seminar)

Part 1) Reader review data

What metaphors are the reviewers drawing on in order to describe their reading experiences?

Do the reviews draw on language that implies closeness/distance? How does this vary between the reviews?

Part 2) Further questions

Think of a text that you’ve read that brought about a strong emotional reaction in some way. What was it about the text, in particular, that brought about those feelings?

What factors might influence our feelings of identification/ observation of a character or text?

Selected References

Armstrong, J. (2014) Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers. London: Bloomsbury.

Feay, S. (2014) The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer – review. The Guardian (online) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/18/shock-fall-nathan-filer-review (retrieved 08/07/18)

Filer, N. (2013) The Shock of the Fall. London: Harper Collins.

Gerrig, R.J. (1993). Experiencing narrative worlds: on the psychological activities of reading. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Goodreads reader reviews (RR1 – RR7) https:// www.goodreads.com/book/show/16120760-the-shock-of-the-fall (retrieved 08/07/18)

Oatley, K. (1999) Meetings of minds: Dialogue, sympathy, and identification in reading fiction. Poetics 26: 439–454.

Peplow, D., Swann, J., Trimarco, P. & Whiteley, S. (2016). The discourse of reading groups: integrating cognitive and sociocultural perspectives. London: Routledge.

Sanai, L. (2014) The Shock of the Fall By Nathan Filer, book review: 'Moved by the dark humour in a poignant debut‘. The Observer online: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-shock-of-the-fall-by-nathan-filer-book-review-moved-by-the-dark-humour-in-a-poignant-debut-9073069.html (retrieved 08/07/18)

Stockwell, P. (2009). Texture: a cognitive aesthetics of reading. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Whiteley, S. (2011). Text world theory, real readers and emotional responses to The Remains of the Day. Language and Literature, 20 (1), 23–42.