The Identity of Pedagogy and Research in the Study of Response to Literature
Abstract
THE STUDY OF RESPONSE TO LITERATURE has tried to use the epistemological standards and research procedures of the quantitative sciences. In this well-known method, a research site is established, the object of research is stripped of inessential features, the researcher stipulates and seeks to maintain independence of the object and its independence of him, and then draws conclusions that he believes others will have no trouble accepting. If accepted, the conclusions are considered objective knowledge and are discarded only when there is a more persuasive argument for another conclusion. Because both the old and new knowledge are considered objective, the new is considered true and the old false. True knowledge is understood as the representation of something intrinsic to the object of study; the process of knowing is the act of representing the object and its working in the correct way. The object of study, it is presupposed, is unaffected by the attempt to understand it. In Subjective Criticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978) I have discussed how, in major areas of human knowledge, this objective epistemology has been questioned, and in some instances, suspended or discarded. Many who have studied response have indicated similar misgivings about the traditional research methodology and reasoning. Nevertheless, most response researchers have continued to expect results from the approaches that have brought success in science in the past. The task of developing knowledge of response to literature, however, presents an especially clear occasion for showing how and why to change these expectations, and how to reconceive the problem of research in this area along more productive lines. This change in perspective involves identifying response research with literary pedagogy. The interest in response has evolved historically from the growth of the pedagogical profession and from the gradual onset of universal literacy. When few could read, pedagogy aimed to develop reading skill and then reading habits. When the
- Journal
- College English
- Published
- 1980-12-01
- DOI
- 10.2307/376137
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