The Nature of Literary Response

Five Readers Reading

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book The Nature of Literary Response by Clark McPhail, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Clark McPhail ISBN: 9781351478892
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: July 12, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Clark McPhail
ISBN: 9781351478892
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: July 12, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

In a rare fusion of literary sensibility with psychological research, Norman N. Holland brings to light important data showing how personality—in the fullest sense of character development and identity—affects the way in which we read and interpret literature. This book will show that readers respond to literature in terms of their own lifestyle, character, personality, or identity. By such terms, psychoanalytic writers mean an individual's characteristic way of dealing with the demands of outer and inner reality. Each new experience develops the style, while the pre-existing style shapes each new experience.

The sub-title of this book, Five Readers Reading, reflects the fact that the author, a distinguished literary critic, worked with five student readers, using a battery of psychological tests and extensive interviews to study the ways they reacted to classic short stories by Faulkner, Hemingway, and others. Combining his own interpretation of the stories with his understanding of the readers and their reactions, Holland derives four principles that inform literary response. He then goes on to show how these principles apply, not just to literary response, but to the way personality shapes any experience.

The book carries Holland's previous studies of creation and responsive recreation forward to a major theoretical statement. He rejects the artificial idea that one must think of a text (or other event) as separate from its perceivers, illustrating the dynamics by which perceiver and perceived mutually create an experience. For critics and students of the psychology of human behavior, this is challenging and seminal reading.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In a rare fusion of literary sensibility with psychological research, Norman N. Holland brings to light important data showing how personality—in the fullest sense of character development and identity—affects the way in which we read and interpret literature. This book will show that readers respond to literature in terms of their own lifestyle, character, personality, or identity. By such terms, psychoanalytic writers mean an individual's characteristic way of dealing with the demands of outer and inner reality. Each new experience develops the style, while the pre-existing style shapes each new experience.

The sub-title of this book, Five Readers Reading, reflects the fact that the author, a distinguished literary critic, worked with five student readers, using a battery of psychological tests and extensive interviews to study the ways they reacted to classic short stories by Faulkner, Hemingway, and others. Combining his own interpretation of the stories with his understanding of the readers and their reactions, Holland derives four principles that inform literary response. He then goes on to show how these principles apply, not just to literary response, but to the way personality shapes any experience.

The book carries Holland's previous studies of creation and responsive recreation forward to a major theoretical statement. He rejects the artificial idea that one must think of a text (or other event) as separate from its perceivers, illustrating the dynamics by which perceiver and perceived mutually create an experience. For critics and students of the psychology of human behavior, this is challenging and seminal reading.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book From Bullets to Ballots by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book The Stubborn Structure by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book The Mutual Construction of Statistics and Society by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Taxi-Dance Hall:Esc V2 by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book An Introduction to Nursing Informatics, Evolution, and Innovation, 2nd Edition by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Work and Livelihoods by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Libraries, Books, and Collectors of Texts, 1600-1900 by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Language as Discourse by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Garrisoning the Borderlands of Medieval Siena by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Brain Research in Education and the Social Sciences by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Pan-Africanism, and the Politics of African Citizenship and Identity by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Shakespeare Left and Right by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book False-memory Creation in Children and Adults by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book British Foreign Policy 1660-1972 by Clark McPhail
Cover of the book Childhood by Clark McPhail
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy