Reprivileging Reading

Abstract

This essay explores intersections between reading and privilege and moves out from a survey of faculty reading practices to consider what is at stake in distinguishing between “real” and “instrumental” reading. Allen argues that, as privileged subjects, teachers can best help students approach reading as the negotiation of uncertainty when teachers themselves undertake such negotiation. That is, instructors do well to consciously inhabit and emotionally integrate their own contradictory desires for reading—the desire for institutional viability associated with instrumental reading, on the one hand, and the desire for the leisured thought of real reading, on the other.

The affects of not reading: Hating characters, being bored, feeling stupid

“…While the question of close reading as a basic skill and defining method of literary studies has been reignited, there is also increasing attention given to how close reading can be fostered and taught to undergraduate and graduate students (Adlington and Wright, 2012;Allen, 2012;Chick et al, 2009). Largely eschewing the debate about the value of different styles of reading to the discipline, these studies focus on the pragmatic issue of how to effectively teach, assess and support students in the development of critical or close reading skills.…”

“…Despite renewed interest in reading methodologies, there is only a small, and relatively recent, attempt to explore student reading practices, such as recent studies by Allen (2012), Chick et al (2009, Jolliffe and Harl (2008) and Manarin (2012). Robert Scholes contends that the decline in reading skills in literary studies has slipped under the radar.…”