For your assigned theory please discuss the
following: How would you define the theory/model? What are the main components? How does it differ from the other 2? Who are the key players?
Expressivism!
Based on my understanding
of Chapter 2, the Expressivists are the primary proponents of “reader-response”
in which “readers create their own ‘person’ or ‘subjective’ meanings from the
texts they read” (30). Some expressivists take this to the point of disagreeing
with any conception of a “reading program” that includes readers and schema and
questions for understanding a text. Rather, a student should read stories and
react to them in the “close reading” assignment.
A pro, of course, is the
potential democratization of reading, because any reader can have a deep,
heart-felt response literature. On the
other hand, a problem with expressivism that McCormick points out is that a lot
of the “reader response” pedagogy in fact holds to a rather objectivist point
of view, for “only readers with an educatedsensibility were regarded as being
able to apprehend that meaning of a text from the language itself” (34) – a
reader had to be trained to do correct close reading.
Furthermore, the Brits
didn’t particularly like American reader-response pedagogies because it removes
the text from any social or cultural context, placing the individual’s
experience and interpretation above all else. This is the same problem the
Brits likely have with Americans in general, that we value the individual above
all historical perspective or social interest.
Huckleberry Finn example: Another concern with
expressivism is that asking students to give true, honest reactions to texts
ignores the fact that a classroom is still a specific context for reading, and
students are certainly aware of its constraints—no truly honest reaction is
likely to be volunteered. Similarly, when students are told simply to be
introspective for their response rather than learning any historical, social or
cultural contexts for the text (or for themselves), how many potential readings
of a text are ignored, and to what end?
In the end, McCormick
sees 3 drawbacks to expressivism:
1.
no theory of the text, reader is sole
participant
2.
does not investigate social conditions/context
3.
does not carry over to non-literary texts
(can’t very well to reader response to an anatomy book)
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