The reading experience
THERE is enough research surrounding the field of literature and book history that it could take a lifetime to sort through it all.
It’s a topic JCU lecturer Dr Roger Osborne is passionate about, having spent many years researching books and reading.
“We can think of reading as a cultural moment,” Dr Osborne said.
“There are particular moments when reading happens and it happens for particular reasons.
“When we read, for whatever reason, we hold a material object, but on that object are words that need to be decoded.
“It’s the act of decoding that has an impact on a reader.
“However they decode is unique to that reader specifically, so the resulting impact is actually unique to that reader, as well.”
The written word is intertwined with human history.
Even through oral retellings, we remember our history and our rich humanity through what we choose to keep and pass on.
When we approach reading with this in mind, we learn more about ourselves and others.
“I had a student once who said ‘this is making me really uncomfortable” as we were learning about the differences in reading,” Dr Osborne said.
“He was being asked to look at books in a completely new way.
“He was being asked to consider how a book or a story will always contain the same words, but can also be read differently each time it is read.”
Culture has a similar influence. The cultural association of an author, or the cultural context of a book, or the cultural experience of the reader, can change the way a written piece is received and how it exists in that culture.
Dr Osborne said reflecting on these historical and modern similarities brings us back to what is at the core of the study of literature: humanity.
When we explore the books that we read, how we read them, and why we read them, we’re exploring our own experiences.
Reading can help us learn more about ourselves, our histories, our cultures, and the people around us.
Perhaps by sitting alone with a book for a while, we can learn to better stand beside one another.