Literary texts occupy a special place as a foundation of an English language arts program. Literature typically involves the use of language and the imagination to represent, recreate, and explore human experiences. Literary texts celebrate the richness and power of language, stimulate the imagination and aesthetic awareness, and shape thought and understanding. Through writing, viewing, reading, and critically responding to literary and transactional texts, students extend their understanding of themselves and of the world. Literary texts provide students with valuable experiences that would otherwise not be introduced into their lives.
Literary texts can be based on reality or imagination and include written, spoken, and visual texts of stories, novels, poems, plays, and nonfiction such as biographies, essays, and documentaries. Reading these texts for literary experience is different from reading them just for information. Rosenblatt (1985) offers a starting point for thinking about the reading of literary texts when she defines two general stances readers may choose when constructing meaning and responding to literature.
In one stance (i.e., the efferent stance) the reader's purpose is primarily to gain information. The emphasis is on recalling, paraphrasing, and analyzing detail.
In the second stance (i.e., the aesthetic stance) the reader's purpose is primarily to associate text with personal experience and feelings. The emphasis is on personally connecting with the text as one reads, developing deeper insights into the human experience, and responding thoughtfully and critically to the ideas and insights presented.
Any text can be read from either an aesthetic or efferent point of view and both have a place in the English language arts classroom. Strategic readers understand that different texts require different approaches and strategies. Students need to develop effective strategies in order to read different genres--prose, poetry, plays, and media--in both the aesthetic and efferent stances. Sample questions to highlight each stance follow.
Sample Aesthetic Stance Questions