Dalsis_Disliking Books at an Early Age

Travis Dalsis

Eastern Michigan University

Dr. Douglas Baker

5 January 2012

A Response to “Disliking Books at an Early Age”

            Assumptions about reading—what reading is, what type of person reads, and how reading is executed—are entrenched in our culture.  Graff opens his work on “Disliking Books at an Early Age,” with an examination of the cultural landscape of middle-class children living in Chicago during the 50’s.  He reflects upon the cultural forces that work against the reading of literary texts and intellectualizing of them by claiming certain gender role expectations among males and social class observations among females.  In essence, what Graff starts out discussing is the idea of community.  He dictates his own experiences of alienation to a literary community early in his academic studies as a prelude to the discussion of how we as a society read texts and are expected to teach them in classrooms.

            A thread of discussion that Graff props up is a response to the debate over relevance of literary criticism and its role in establishing readers’ interests and confidence in studying canonical and classic literary texts.  Graff describes the argument that anti-literary theory groups make which is that secondary texts involving literary analysis of a primary text convolute and contaminate the purity that the reader is supposed to experience the text with.  The notion that one would consult a theoretical framework to engage in close reading of a text is a violation of the idealized consumption of texts.  Graff argues against this position through evoking personal testimony to the futility of the practice.

            A major point that Graff employs is the idea that literary criticisms can empower readers by giving them a reference point of understanding.  If a student is reading Jane Eyre with a Freudian literary lens, they are empowered to close read for certain objects, words, colors, and characterizations.  Without this literary lens, Graff, like many students, feel alienated from discussion because they have no lexicon to confer with colleagues.  I agree with Graff’s position that helping students find a position to think about texts is vital.  Graff claims that this strategy is useful for students to engage them in reading difficult texts because reading is a communal experience in the classroom.  If students are alienated from a text because of the language, allusions, or other elements, then literary critiques of that text are a road map to help them move closer and they provide an inroad to a more engaged experience.

            Overall, what I enjoyed most about this article was the fact that Graff made explicit the implicit work he engaged in to become active and interested in reading.  Educators cannot always pull back the curtain of his/her students to see the arduous work that they engage in as they struggle with texts.  His ideas help bring an awareness of the illusion that giving a text to a student and allowing its brilliance to vibrate outward is automatic.  He helps ground idealists in the reality that teachers impart theoretical lenses when teaching (if they are doing their job) and that introducing critical theory in the classrooms alongside texts is a powerful opportunity for debate and discussion that will result in critical literacy.