Reading Practices
The
term
Any
writer (indeed all of us) will have a way of thinking about the world
which will affect the way that they write. This way of thinking will be
created by the way we are brought up by our family, our schooling, the society
in which we live, the movies we watch, etc… It can help to think about this way
of thinking as a series of biases, prejudices or assumptions about how
the world is or should be. A writer’s novel, poem or play will tend to support
or rely on this set of assumptions.
It
is important to realise that the writer’s way
of thinking about the world will usually match up with that of everyone
else in his society. If it does not, that writer will often be classified as mad
or unusual and will tend to be unpopular and find it difficult to publish their
work. Notice that ‘mad’ only really means not sharing the same set of beliefs
or assumptions that the majority of other people do.
When
we are reading a text we make use of the fact that we share a way
of thinking or set of assumptions with the author to make sense of the
text. Often the author will have left gaps in their text that our shared set of
assumptions fill for us. For example, how often do texts go to the trouble of
explaining that people who rob, murder or rape are the bad guys? Almost never. Why? Because it’s obvious.
However, this is just part of our shared way of thinking; a shared assumption
that we have made. It is not necessarily the case that robbery or murder are
bad things; it is possible to imagine a world where they are positive
attributes – a warrior culture perhaps or, in fact, any country when it is at
war.
Following
this, the Dominant Reading of a text
will be a reading that follows, supports or does not
question the way of thinking shared by the writer and the society in which they
write.
A Resistant Reading, then, will be one
that challenges the biases, prejudices or set of assumptions shared by the
writer and the society in which they write.
Most of the time when we read we produce a Dominant Reading. However, if we want to say something different, interesting or
controversial about a text we can choose to develop a resistant reading. This involves a refusal to read according to
the conventional rules, choosing instead, to draw attention to the gaps, silences and contradictions in the text.
The
aim of a resistant reading is usually
to highlight beliefs and values which are normally taken for granted in every
day life but which may not actually be true if we view the world from a
different way of thinking.
e.g. A resistant reading of Cinderella follows:
The story actually reveals the
shallowness of men who judge women solely on the basis of physical
attractiveness. A man who will marry a
woman on the basis of a few hours of dancing is unlikely to have made a
sensible decision regarding a long term commitment and is likely to leave Cinderella
as quickly as he married her if someone with more dainty feet comes along. No
wonder most of the women in the story are bitter. The story also represents a woman’s physical
appearance as a commodity for her to use to gain social status and wealth.
Obviously this is not how we are meant
to read Cinderella but if you think closely about the story it can make sense
to read it in this way.