Efferent and Aesthetic Reading Study Notes
Efferent and Aesthetic Reading
Introduction to Reader Activity
Active Reader: It is established that a reader engaging with any text, whether it be poetry, scientific texts, or cookbooks, is actively involved in drawing meaning from coded symbols.
Nature of Texts: The distinction arises when comparing the literary work of art to other forms of verbal communication. The term "literature" is fluid, historically different to categorize all types of literary works.
Differentiating Literary Works from Other Texts
Challenge of Differentiation: Differentiation of poetic texts from scientific or factual texts has puzzled theorists.
Common Assumption: There is a tendency to attribute differences in reading outcomes (i.e., interpretation of a biology book vs. Yeats's "Byzantium") to the text alone–content, structure, syntax, etc.
Reader's Role: The text, though necessary, is not sufficient for re-creating a particular work, emphasizing the reader's relationship and activities during reading sessions.
Rethinking Reader's Focus
Question Reformulation: The essential question shifts from evaluating text characteristics to exploring "What does the reader do in different reading contexts?"
Reading Events: Recognition that the same text can evoke different kinds of interpretations depending on the reader's focus allows for a more nuanced understanding.
Efferent vs. Aesthetic Reading
Efferent Reading: Definition
Primarily concerned with acquiring information and practical applications from the text. The reader aims to retain usable information post-reading.
Example: A mother reading a label on a poison bottle to find an antidote—her focus is on the text's practical application, ignoring aesthetics.
Aesthetic Reading: Definition
Here, the reader's focus lies on the experience of reading itself—emotions, images, and sensations invoked by the literary text.
Example: Reading Frost’s "Birches" focuses on the feelings and associations that arise during the reading.
Reader's Activities During Reading Events
Attention Spectrum: The reader's attention in efferent reading is aimed outward towards concepts while aesthetic reading demands an inward focus on individual experience.
Examples of Readers' Attentiveness:
Efferent Reader: A chemist reads a formula for information to be utilized, concentrating solely on the logical outcome.
Aesthetic Reader: A reader contextualizes words, reflecting on emotional responses during the engagement with text.
Experiments Supporting Reader Activity Differentiation
Psycholinguistic Research: Validates the differences between decoding verbal symbols and deriving meaning. Speedreading is primarily an efferent reading technique, lacking the depth of aesthetic engagement.
Literary vs. Non-Literary Texts: Usage of speedreading techniques on literary prose would misrepresent the text, as treating it unofficially treats literature merely as a sequence of events.
Quality of Experience in Reading
Qualities of Texts: Different texts carry varying potentials for aesthetic experience. Some texts elicit richer engagement than others facilitates deeper narrative immersion.
Reader’s Profiles: Reader experiences and reactions differ based on personal states of mind and previous encounters with life and letters.
Aesthetic Stance and Artistic Work
Concept of Artistic Absorption: The aesthetic experience necessitates complete immersion in the text, allowing synthesis of emotional and intellectual engagement without specific external gain.
Quote from Coleridge: It emphasizes that poetry should captivate readers to experience the journey rather than focus solely on a resolution.
Transactional Nature of Literary Experience
Art as Experience: Reading a poem is a form of art where the reader interacts subtly and complexly with the text to create a unique experience termed as the work of art.
Absorption in Reading: There is a significant emphasis on experiencing the journey through the interaction of words as sounds, rhythms, and feelings.
Factors Affecting Reader Engagement
Element of Choice: The choice of stance (aesthetic vs. efferent) might not always be conscious, and can be influenced by previous reading habits and background.
Cognitive vs. Affective: The experience must be recognized beyond just knowledge acquisition so that effective emotional involvement becomes possible.
The Importance of Imagination in Reading
Every act of reading possesses imaginative facets, not limited to poetry but extends to scientific and other texts where cognitive engagement is vital.
The distinction lies in the reader's conscious attention; efferent activities might neglect emotional or aesthetic outcomes in critical reading.
Conclusion on Aesthetic vs. Efferent Reading
Both readings exist along a continuum rather than being static or separated strictly into categories.
Aesthetic reading demands the reader harmonize cognitive understanding with affective dimensions, synthesizing them into a cohesive understanding of the text, enriching the overall literary experience.
The concepts of efferent and aesthetic stances provide a robust framework for educational objectives in visual arts. As an educator, transitioning these theories from 'reading' to 'viewing' impacts how students interact with visual culture:
Shifting the Objective from Identification to Experience: Just as the note describes the 'Active Reader,' a visual arts student is an 'Active Viewer.' Educational objectives often balance between efferent viewing—where students identify technical elements like line, color, and historical context—and aesthetic viewing, where the goal is the student's emotional and sensory response to the work.
The Transactional Nature of Art: Applying the 'Art as Experience' concept, a visual arts educator views a painting not as a static object but as a transaction. The objective becomes teaching students how to bring their own life experiences and 'personal states of mind' to the artwork to create a unique 'work of art' in their own minds.
Cultivating the Aesthetic Stance: In many curriculum models, there is a risk of over-emphasizing the efferent (e.g., memorizing dates or chemical compositions of pigments). The note suggests that aesthetic reading requires an 'inward focus.' For an arts educator, a key objective is to provide the time and space for this 'artistic absorption,' ensuring that formal analysis doesn't replace the initial, imaginative encounter with a piece.
Critique of 'Speed-Viewing': Similar to the psycholinguistic critique of speedreading, visual arts education addresses the problem of 'museum fatigue' or surface-level viewing. Educational objectives should encourage students to slow down their perception, moving beyond a sequence of visual 'facts' toward a synthesized, affective understanding of the medium.