Ways of Reading Third Edition - Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, Tom Furniss, Sara Mills 2007

1.3 How to get started in ways of reading
Unit 1 Asking questions as a way into reading
Section 1 Basic techniques and problem-solving

In practice, the different senses of the ’meaning’ of a text are not always easily separable from one another; but, historically, different aspects of a text’s meanings have been emphasized in different schools of criticism and embedded in different kinds of reading strategy. Listing the principal directions of analysis here is useful if it helps to overcome a tendency to assume that looking for or finding one kind of meaning exhausts the interpretive possibilities.

Often when you start reading, questions about a text and a sense of its potential for meaning will come flooding in. Your own responses begin to form, and are traceable back - if you stop to do so - to particular textual features, echoes of other texts, and parallels and contrasts with your own beliefs and experiences. But not always. Sometimes you may feel stuck or uncertain how to start, as if the text is somehow blocking your usual strategies. When that happens a checklist of conventional entry points may be a welcome aid. With such occasions in mind, we offer the following list of question prompts, before going on in subsequent units to investigate specific topics in more detail. Each question should lead into a practical line of enquiry for you to follow; use the contents page and index to find the relevant units in which we explore each topic further.

1.3.1 Textual questions

✵ Is the piece of text you are looking at the whole of that text?

✵ Does the text exist in only one version or in many different versions? If in many versions, are there likely to be significant differences between them (e.g. as regards spelling, layout, typeface or even content)?

✵ Has the text been cut, edited or expurgated?

✵ Has the text been annotated, possibly for a new readership or new market? If so, who provided the annotations, and do the annotations direct you towards one particular way of looking at the text?

1.3.2 Contextual questions

✵ When, where and in what circumstances was the text written or produced?

✵ Do aspects of the text (such as elements of its narrative, setting or themes) have obvious connections, especially parallels or contrasts, with the society contemporaneous with the text being produced?

✵ Who was the text originally aimed at? Are you part of that anticipated readership or audience?

✵ Was the author or producer of the text male or female? Professional or amateur? A native speaker of English or a non-native speaker?

✵ How old was he or she when the text was produced?

✵ How does the particular text you are looking at fit into what you know of the rest of the text-producer’s output?

1.3.3 Questions regarding the ’speech situation’

✵ Who is supposed to be speaking the words of the text?

✵ From whose point of view is the text being told?

✵ Who is the text addressed to?

1.3.4 Referential questions

✵ Does the text contain quotations from other texts?

✵ Does the text refer to particular social attitudes, facts or beliefs about the world, or to particular historical or geographical knowledge?

✵ Does the text contain references to other literary, media, mythological or religious texts, figures or events? If so, do you know - and how much does it matter whether you know - what these references refer to?

1.3.5 Language questions

✵ Is the text in its original language or a translation?

✵ Is it likely that all the words in the text, especially words used to describe key topics or narrate key moments, still have the same meaning they did when the text was produced?

✵ Are the sentences generally of the same length and complexity? If not, is the inequality patterned or distributed in any way that might be significant?

✵ What sort of vocabulary do the words of the text generally come from (elevated or colloquial; technical or non-technical; standard or regional; Latinate or Germanic; etc.)?

✵ Were all the words and structures still current at the time the text was written or is it possible that some (e.g. ’thou’) are archaisms?

✵ As regards all of the above, is the text consistent, or are there contrasts or shifts within the text? (For example, do different characters or speakers use language in significantly different ways?)

1.3.6 Questions of convention

✵ Should the way you read the text be guided by specific conventions to do with the sort of text it is (e.g. satire, pantomime, sitcom)?

✵ How realistic do you expect the text to be? How, for instance, does the text achieve its appearance of being real or true, if it has one (by checkable details and evidence; on the basis of an underlying truthfulness despite surface implausibility; etc.)?

1.3.7 Symbolic questions

✵ Do names in the text refer to particular, unique individuals or do they seem representative, standing for general characters or character-types?

✵ Is it likely that places (mountains, sea . . .), weather (storms, sunset . . .) or events (marriage, travel . . .) have extra, symbolic meanings?

✵ Is the text concerned with a specific set of events or does it seek to represent one set of concerns in the form of a story about another, as a kind of allegory?

✵ How far could the text’s title be a key to its meaning?

1.3.8 Questions of emotional effect and identification

✵ Do you see significant aspects of yourself in any of the characters or events depicted?

✵ Do any of the problems, dilemmas or issues represented in the text resonate especially with your own experience, as a member of a given social group or class?

✵ Does the text present anything that you consider to be a conventional fantasy scenario or wish fulfilment?

✵ Do any sections or aspects of the text repel, offend or embarrass you?

1.3.9 Questions of representation

✵ Do you think the text is typical - for its time, place and context of presentation or publication - in terms of its representation of its selected themes?

✵ Does the text present images of race, women, industry, money, crime, health, personal success or fulfilment (or other socially core themes)? If so, do these images seem to you unfair, biased or problematic?

✵ Does the text omit any major aspects of the topics it deals with, in ways that may restrict or limit the viewpoint it offers?

✵ Does the text treat topics in ways that are new to you and instructive?