“…Alongside this convergence game of constant return to the text, here we re-orient with a different gamea divergence game. Here, the text is treated as non-sovereign (Breger, 2017) and engaged in unstable, emergent relations. The question put about the text is not what it means, but what it does as it enters into relations on the plateau.…”
Section: The Reader's Text As An Openingmentioning
Working through four key tenets of Deleuze-Guattarian theory, the authors describe how contemporary affect theory offers a radically different perspective on reading. Asking how we can conceptualize reading differently if we conceptualize affect differently, we argue that possible meanings of reading or experiences of reading must be considered not as inherent to internal experiences of reading but as composed and recomposed in sets of affective relations. Using an example of two children reading, we consider how reading, as a material doing, takes up and is taken up by bodies, materials, spaces, histories, feelings, and ideas. To consider affect as the property of sets of present relations rather than of the individual prompts us to consider how the various elements assemble and break apart to produce intensities in which reading participates. Deprivileging human intentionality or motivations, we ask, "In a given instance, what conditions of possibility are being produced and for whom, and how are participants taking up or being moved by those conditions?" We conclude with suggestions for how contemporary affect theory can reorient our understanding of reading research. We begin with a scene of two children reading together. One child, a boy, is older-perhaps seven or eight years old. Snuggled up next to the boy, her head leaning against his shoulder, is his sister of four years. Both children are laying on their bellies, and the boy is holding out an open book in front of them in both hands, such that they can see the pages.
“…Alongside this convergence game of constant return to the text, here we re-orient with a different gamea divergence game. Here, the text is treated as non-sovereign (Breger, 2017) and engaged in unstable, emergent relations. The question put about the text is not what it means, but what it does as it enters into relations on the plateau.…”
Section: The Reader's Text As An Openingmentioning
Working through four key tenets of Deleuze-Guattarian theory, the authors describe how contemporary affect theory offers a radically different perspective on reading. Asking how we can conceptualize reading differently if we conceptualize affect differently, we argue that possible meanings of reading or experiences of reading must be considered not as inherent to internal experiences of reading but as composed and recomposed in sets of affective relations. Using an example of two children reading, we consider how reading, as a material doing, takes up and is taken up by bodies, materials, spaces, histories, feelings, and ideas. To consider affect as the property of sets of present relations rather than of the individual prompts us to consider how the various elements assemble and break apart to produce intensities in which reading participates. Deprivileging human intentionality or motivations, we ask, "In a given instance, what conditions of possibility are being produced and for whom, and how are participants taking up or being moved by those conditions?" We conclude with suggestions for how contemporary affect theory can reorient our understanding of reading research. We begin with a scene of two children reading together. One child, a boy, is older-perhaps seven or eight years old. Snuggled up next to the boy, her head leaning against his shoulder, is his sister of four years. Both children are laying on their bellies, and the boy is holding out an open book in front of them in both hands, such that they can see the pages.
“…To this convergence game of constant return to the text in practices of reading discussion, we introduce a different game: a divergence game. Here, the text is treated as nonsovereign (Breger, 2017) and engaged in an unstable, emergent ensemble. In this game, the ground of activity is only the ensemble and its ongoing play of energies.…”
Section: Teaching As Invoking (Not Owning) the Textmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In relation to discussion of reading, the readers and the text come together in joint worlding. Breger (2017) illuminated these relations, writing from narrative theory:Through the distributed agency of nonsovereign actors—including but not limited to authors, narrators, characters, and readers in the literary circuit, these processes constitute narrative worlds as multidimensional, ‘multivectoral’ assemblages: configurations in which the presumably interruptive, variously vertical, horizontal, and orthagonal axes of affect and sensation, along with association and memory, intertextuality and trope all contribute to…action and analysis. (p. 231)The idea of “multidimensional, ‘multivectoral’ assemblages” brings together well the concepts of heterogeneity‐in‐movement and putting texts into movement.…”
Section: Evocations Of Worlding As Immanencementioning
The authors investigated improvisational theater and the possibilities that it presents for reconsidering reading pedagogy, with a focus on discussions of reading. The authors conducted empirical, qualitative studies of improvisational practice and instruction and analyzed improv through the construct of worlding. In this article, the authors explore different dimensions of worlding, a concept that generally describes how ensembles make present and create unique events in time. Next, the authors offer a vision of reading discussions that emerges from rethinking and refeeling such discussions through forms of worlding found in improvisation. The authors conclude by offering five improvinspired teaching practices for discussions of reading: (1) teaching as invoking the text, (2) teaching as exchanging offers, (3) teaching as attuning, (4) teaching as following lines of flight, and (5) teaching as activating embodied energy.
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