As a body of readers, we all respond to literature in very different ways. Through an educational standpoint, readers may be instructed to respond to literature in a scholastic manner; through writing a summary and in-depth analysis of the piece. Outside of the educational spectrum, literature may inspire people to write themselves to comment on the piece they read or simply on their own experiences. There are some writers that were inspired to being their journey of writing literature through reading the work of others. Some readers may respond to the literature they read through a more productive manner. After reading literature about a struggling culture or someone who suffers from a chronic disease, the reader may even become active in helping to support a cause tat aids those in need through charities or other bodies of charity organizations.
Although analyzing literature may seem insignificant to some, there are many important ideals that are derived from analyzing literature. One of the most important pieces of literature that many people appreciate and live by is the Bible. Like any other piece of written literature, the Bible can be analyzed and interpreted in many different ways. In any manner that we interpret the Bible, those who believe in the messages written in the Bible treat this book as a way to live their lives based on the religion they practice. There are also those who believe in some aspects of the Bible, not not others, based on their individual interpretation. There are many things that can have different meanings to different people, and the importance in understanding one's own interpretation of the Bible has a huge impact on the way some live their lives. Literature also has the power to inspire people in different ways. As mentioned above, some readers may have been inspired to begin writing themselves through reading literature from and idolized author. However, a reader may relate to a character's adversity in a story and can see the courage within the character to overcome their obstacles and inspire the reader to do the same. There are pieces of literature that put their primary focus on teenagers and young adults that have the ability to ensure the reader that they're never alone in their specific situations and can strongly impact their overall outlook on life. Young readers may then reach out and help other teens their age to empower them through the same obstacles.
The discussion of literature is heavily based on understanding the piece and being comfortable with one's own interpretation of the piece. When a meaning can be determined and supported with proper textual evidence, one's interpretation can be discussed with other readers of the same piece. This can be incredibly beneficial in expanding the view of other readers in exposing them to different perspectives of the same material. Very rare is the occasion that upon the initial analysis, there will be a unanimous agreement to one particular viewpoint; the story is examined through various points of view thus producing differences in opinions among readers. To be able to agree to disagree on a story's theme and employment of figurative language and the symbolic meanings behind it can only help up grow as readers and broaden out view and opinions on literature interpretation.
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Responding to Literature
ReplyDeleteThis blog has many insight details on analyzing a work and responding to literature. I agree that everyone interprets every piece of literature a different way. Regardless of the type of literature work that is being read. The example of the bible was a very detailed, yet known work that was a fantastic stationary for this response. Many different religions look at the same bible, however, the interpretation of the bible and the belief behind the literature on this bible is different. This causes the differences in the religions and the separations among people.
It is true that many types of literature are written for a certain age. Some of this literature can really impact people, such as a Clifford book, to a teenage novel, to a great and older version of a work. It all depends on the understanding of a piece of literature and how the interpretation is taken in by you. Actually this is a good statement on the response to literature. It all depends on our own personal experiences and perspectives that will eventually lead us to responding to our literature in various ways compared to other people that have read the same piece of literature.
You gave a lot of really good reasons why and how people can interpret literature. In my own blog I also gave some of those ways people can interpret it as well.I really agree with you that people interpret literature by the way it is given to them and the reason behind what they are reading and writing. It is also true that most people think literature is mostly given our from a scholarly point and don't realize that literature is in our lives everyday. I liked how you expanded on how people never interpret the same thing when they read literature, they all have their own different view points. I agree with you very much so on that point. I think your blog was very well written this week good job!
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