Dominant vs. Resistant Readings

1. Dominant vs. Resistant Readings

2. ‘Reading’ • a way of thinking about the world • series of prejudices/assumptions of the way the world is. • affected by our family, schooling, and society • various texts support or rely on these assumptions

3. Different Readings Dominant Reading: follows, supports or does not question the way of thinking shared by the writer and the society in which he/she writes Resistant Reading: one that challenges the biases, prejudices or set of assumptions shared by the writer and the society in which she/he writes.

4. Dominant Reading of LRRH • Children should obey their parents because disobedience is dangerous. • It is dangerous to talk to strangers. • Females are vulnerable but can rely on men to protect them. • Males are rescuers. Males are stronger than females and better able to protect themselves and others

5. What’s the point?! • texts are a model for life • affect our way of thinking about the world (and what the world should be like) • if our texts are sexist, classist, racist then sexism, classism, racism will seep into our world.

6. Gender Readings • ‘sex’ • biological term referring to concrete differences • ‘gender’ • prejudices and assumptions concerning stereotypical characteristics • roles that are created by society • both sexes are forced (through expectations) to fulfill these roles

7. LOOK FOR: Stereotypes Women: • emotional, caring, irrational, afraid of spiders Men: • strong, silent, rational, equipped with innate instincts for spider combat

8. Goal of Gender Readings • Women often portrayed as weak, helpless, illogical and in need of rescue by men • explains gender inequality, creating an imbalance of power • men are almost always in the more powerful positions • women are reduced to objects • revealing these assumptions means they can be combated

9. LOOK FOR: four character types • Caring mother figure • Obedient daughter • Acceptable romantic partner (the wife) • The temptress (the mistress) **Any of these can be depicted as a victim

10. Marxist/Economic Readings Assumptions: • humans are not truly free to be anything they want • socio-economic conditions affect every aspect of the world that we live in – including our minds and the way that we look at the world

11. LOOK FOR: power relations • Who has control of others because of societal structures (family, religion, government, school)? • Who are the ‘bosses’? Who are the workers? How are they characterized?

12. LOOK FOR: ownership • Who owns property? Who doesn’t? • Who lives a comfortable life without needing to work (or work hard)? Who must work hard just to survive? • Which lifestyles are valued or emphasized? How is money (and the pursuit of money) portrayed?

13. Postcolonial Readings • Social Imperialism from 16th to 20th century • Literature used as propaganda to reinforce European view of world (and ‘need’ for imperialistic forces to tame, civilize, and bring order to ‘heathens’) • Recent authors have emphasized the voice and perspective of the colonized

14. LOOK FOR: in Euro-centric Lit. • stereotypical portrayals of colonizer and colonized • racism (cannibalism, irrationalism, fear of mixed race couples) • power struggles between difference races • ‘mimicry’: attempt of colonized to adopt European culture

15. LOOK FOR: in postcolonial Lit. • attempts to capture the rhythm and sound of oral stories (particularly in African Lit.) • native culture defined in opposition to organized, scientific rationalism of Europe • ‘mixed’ characters and their resolutions of identity

16. Goal of Resistant Readings • Highlight when women, the poor, and non-European races and cultures portrayed as: weak, helpless, lazy, immoral, stupid, naïve, violent, savage, technologically and socially backwards • Highlight moments of inequality or situations with imbalances of power due to these factors • Revealing these assumptions (when hidden) means they can be combated. When overt, can help us understand an author’s purpose