Making Readers. Sept 2006
“The Trout” readers: Constituent analysis, based on two comments per reader
R# / Para # / Constituent (type: instance)28 / 1 / Author: reader’s speculation about writer’s intention*
32 / 17 / Character emotion: cares deeply for trout
36 / 17 / Character emotion: puzzled, noting metaphor/character development
35 / 11 / Character emotion: relating to fish
22 / 10 / Character emotion: suspicious that the story of such a "well" is fiction
20 / 13 / Character: characterization of a 12 yr old*
34 / 17 / Character: anthropomorphizing fish; empathy with fish
8 / 10 / Character: changed perspective
31 / 13 / Character: characterization of old man*
5 / 17 / Character: empathy toward others
24 / 12 / Character: Julia is not ignored, but should be*
15 / 17 / Character: Julia shows empathy towards trout
12 / 24 / Character: Julia shows growth and maturity
13 / 20 / Character: Julia shows increased self awareness
15 / 11 / Character: Julia unable to accept childish behaviour
25 / 20 / Character: Julia’s maturity
19 / 19 / Character: Julia’s mother and moral stories
8 / 22 / Character: learning responsibility
26 / 11 / Character: overcomes her fear of the dark
26 / 11 / Character: Reader notices change in personality of character*
35 / 20 / Character: Readers’ interpretation of the little girl, empathetic
2 / 21 / Character: sense of duty implied (to save other life forms)
25 / 4 / Character: sibling interaction realistic
27 / 19-29 / Character: speculation/acknowledgement of growth of Julia
1 / 17 / Character: the realization that problems don't go away if they are ignored
7 / 18 / Character: wants to be mature and child at the same time
37 / 1 / Diction: descriptiveness
23 / 21 / Literary device: opinion on author's detailed descriptions, states they actually ruin the image of the setting
16 / 23 / Literary device: reader connection between Julia & the bird, use of the word “river”, finds connection between Julia & trout.
9 / 1 / Mood: “splendour of the dark walk”
10 / 1 / Mood: “splendour of the dark walk”
22 / 10 / Plot: "Well" is introduced to shift focus of Julia and Stephen's fight
36 / 17 / Plot: development of metaphor/character of trout
22 / 17 / Plot: doesn't directly explain Julia's reason to help trout (foreshadow)
37 / 23 / Plot: enriched by diction
23 / 11 / Plot: focus on the trout in the Dark Walk, no longer seared by darkness
37 / 1 / Plot: foreshadowing; reader anticipates trout
36 / 21 / Plot: girl’s choice examined (to release trout)
24 / 11 / Plot: grabs this reader’s attention by setting up a conflict
1 / 11 / Plot: importance of things that are intangible and less obvious
35 / 20 / Plot: reader anticipates character’s action.
29 / 1 / Plot: setting made universal
32 / 17 / Plot: speculates on existence of trout
28 / 22 / Plot: summary of events
24 / 11 / Plot: the fact that a small fish gets trapped is very fictitious
24 / 11 / Reader curiosity: wants to know how the trout came to be in the well*
6 / 19 / Reader emotion: “creeped out”
33 / 19 / Reader emotion: angry at parents, society
17 / 24 / Reader emotion: appreciated growing up. Appreciates non-skeptism.
17 / 11 / Reader emotion: Appreciates author’s symbolic use of mythical fish *
38 / 11 / Reader emotion: appreciation of literary techniques, especially descriptive words
30 / 1 / Reader emotion: author creates universal atmosphere
7 / 2 / Reader emotion: captured by contradictive language
29 / 1 / Reader emotion: connection with narrator
18 / 2 / Reader emotion: emotional response to personal memory
2 / 2 / Reader emotion: emotional response understood and felt/remembered
2 / 21 / Reader emotion: emotional understanding
3 / 22 / Reader emotion: enjoys use of figurative language
4 / 2 / Reader emotion: enjoys use of sun/drinking metaphor
38 / 1 / Reader emotion: extrapolating possible reasons for author’s choice, concluding it was to incorporate reader into story
37 / 1 / Reader emotion: extrapolation of reason; ambiguity places more focus on setting
14 / 11 / Reader emotion: feels the well is a tiny prison
25 / 13 / Reader emotion: interest in character’s accent
21 / 10 / Reader emotion: interest in voices Julia hears
22 / 17 / Reader emotion: interested in Julia's obsession over fish
10 / 17 / Reader emotion: pity for fish
32 / 11 / Reader emotion: pleasantly surprised by magical descriptions of seemingly dark surroundings
38 / 1 / Reader emotion: questioning technique, style, setting: “G---.” as the place name
37 / 1 / Reader emotion: questioning why author used “G---.” as the place name
27 / 1 / Reader emotion: reaction to personification
29 / 17 / Reader emotion: relates child life to fish’s
17 / 11 / Reader emotion: relates to little boy, get excited.
26 / 22 / Reader emotion: sarcastic about characters concerns
4 / 2 / Reader emotion: struck by imagery
30 / 1 / Reader emotion: suprise
30 / 21, 23 / Reader emotion: surprise at personification
9 / 22 / Reader emotion: talks of Julia’s relationship with fish*
3 / 1 / Reader imagery: aids in plot development/understanding
5 / 1 / Reader imagery: concept of visualization*
11 / 1 / Reader imagery: text creates easy to picture imagery
2 / 2 / Reader memory: recollection of major events in life
1 / 11 / Reader: change of perception of the world around him/her
5 / 17 / Reader: empathy from text relating to reader’s world
13 / 1 / Reader: feels compelled to continue reading
12 / 4 / Reader: surprised by insight shown into sibling relationships
38 / 1 / Self: appreciating description
17 / 11 / Self: awareness of connection with character.
34 / 17 / Self: parallel fear of potential loss of control like trout
34 / 2 / Self: picturing/imagining tactile sensation similar to that of character
36 / 17 / Self: recognition of coming of age, growth, time and maturity
17 / 11 / Self: relates own childhood.
14 / 1 / Setting: reader believes suspicious setting created
11 / 18 / Setting: words make setting easy to imagine
33 / 23 / Story structure: Reader comparison of *
23 / 11 / Story structure: Reader disagreement with logistics of story
20 / 1 / Structure: Ambiguous setting
19 / 2 / Structure: fear of passage dissipates with trout
20 / 20 / Structure: Strong child point of view
20 / 1 / Structure: Switch from past to present tense
21 / 24 / Style: Irony of Julia as fairy godmother
18 / 13 / Style: Reader appreciates use of dialects
24 / 12 / Theme: Assumption that children are not taken seriously
6 / 10 / Theme: growing up
36 / 21 / Theme: maturation
4 / 20 / Theme: Reader on relationship between character interaction and theme*
1 / 11 / Theme: Reader saw social applications in everyday life
28 / 22 / Theme: Reader sees imagery as a common theme
23 / 11 / Theme: Reader’s conclusion that curiosity aids overcoming fear*
*modified from version supplied (maybe incorrectly!)
So far: 108 constituents
21: Character
4: Character emotionCharacter: 25, or 23%
14: Plot
31: Reader emotionReader total: 46, or 43%
9: other Reader
6: SelfEmotion total: 35, or 32%
7: Theme
Commentaries
Probably better done verbally, close to reading moment; writing may elicit essay style responses
Instructions to readers, schematized (too simple?):
- Striking and evocative = response to texture, style, feelings, memory (aesthetic aspects) > intrinsic, pre-explanatory
- Interesting = curiosity, suspense, story-driven aspects of plot and character (narrative aspects) > extrinsic, thematizing, interpretive
Designed to catch first responses, including pre-interpretive – but limited to two (here)
Constituent analysis
Type: instance – enables classification into larger constituents, e.g., style, reader emotion; note, only 7/108 are theme
Count frequency per segment (here, paragraph), bar chart: suggests key points of story
Examine type frequency by segment position (not done here: is reader emotion more frequent early, etc.?)
Ideally, train coders and have each commentary coded by three people
Should code every comment, including quotations from the story
Ideally (also): break story down into sentences for commentary rather than paragraphs
Literariness
See list: how many constituents appear amenable to classification by features within Aesthetic, Engagement, Challenge to reader's world view, Meaning/universality ? (and if a constituent cannot be typed as literary, what is it?)
Iser, “Interaction between text and reader”
How effectively does Iser’s schematization of the reading process capture the significance of our constituents? – e.g.,
artistic vs. aesthetic poles
codes in text to be restructured
the blanks, indeterminacy of, prompt reader ideation
“deeper emotion” below surface, apparently “trivial scenes”
reader “guided to adopt a position in relation to the text”
textual segments / gaps, missing links
referential field of interacting text segments
referential field > segment in focus: theme
Examples
Reader 11, para #1. “One of the first places…”
The description of the dark walk was a striking one, you were really able to get a sense of atmosphere. I liked the use of the words smooth and sinewy, and especially the particular passage: “Underfoot the tough brown leaves are never dry enough to crackle: there is always a suggestion of damp and cool trickle.” I thought these words flowed well and it really gave me a sense of a dark, damp, and cold atmosphere. [Reader imagery: text creates easy to picture imagery]
Reader 4, para #2. “She raced right into it. …”
I found the description of Julia’s sprint through the dark forest to be quite striking. As a result of the nature of the description things that are not alive were personified by their descriptions, such as “she felt the dusk closing swiftly down on her” giving the dusk an almost human sounding nature. I also liked the use of the description of “drinking in the sun” as it is not a normal way of describing enjoying the sun and grabs the reader’s attention. [reader emotion: enjoys use of sun/drinking metaphor]
Reader 7, para #18. “It was late June, the longest…”
I liked this paragraph because it shows how this girl is growing up and coming of age. It demonstrates her eagerness to grow up and have a ‘realness’ of life to herself and not be concerned with childish things like her brother. At the same time she gives the reader a hint of her wanting to hold on to things like the fairy tale her mother is telling, “But she kept one ear cocked” without giving hint of that to the people around her. [Character: wants to be mature and child at the same time]
Frequency of paragraphs chosen for commentary
Para# / Freq / Bar / Text1 / 22 / ********************** / One of the first places…
2 / 8 / ******** / She raced right into it.
3 / 0
4 / 2 / ** / When they had done this
5 / 0
6 / 0
7 / 0
8 / 0
9 / 0
10 / 5 / ***** / Tears were threatening so
11 / 20 / ******************** / But she went back, pretending
12 / 2 / ** / Nobody knew how the trout
13 / 4 / **** / ‘Be cripes, you’re right.
14 / 0
15 / 0
16 / 0
17 / 15 / *************** / It troubled her that the trout
18 / 2 / ** / It was late June, the longest
19 / 3 / *** / ‘And so, in the end, this naughty
20 / 6 / ****** / Passionately she had whirled
21 / 5 / ***** / She sat up. Stephen was a
22 / 6 / ****** / All the time she could feel
23 / 3 / *** / She scuttled up the hill, in
24 / 3 / *** / In the morning Stephen rushed