Concepts

Identity:
When you engage with a book you establish a connection with the author. To build that
connection you build a conception of the author’s identity.
Identity- the way that the readers develop an understanding of the author’s identity through
reading the text.
Narrators (POV) can represent different ideas and values of the author.
Whatever understanding that you ‘generate’ of who the author is from reding a text, is a
construct, and not the actual author, you constructed it through the reading of your own identity.
People interpret texts differently because of whatever experiences you had in life.
Culture:
All texts, literary and non-literary, are written in a cultural context. The values and culture will
have influenced the author in terms of how that author sees the world. The more you learn about
the culture in which the literary work was created, the better you will understand some of the
nuances of that work. We explore the effects of time and space in a work of literature. Culture
also applies to intertextuality, as some of the most interesting comparisons and contrasts will
come out of differences in cultures in which the two works are comparing to each other reading

Creativity
Every literary text and non-literary text are the result of creativity. Authors are creative, but
readers have to be creative as well. You must be creative when you read both, literary and non-
literary texts because they communicate indirectly. Author’s do not say directly what they mean:
the convey ideas through literary strategies, many of which you are no doubt familiar with You
must be alert for mentioning anything that means more that it sems, and then you must use your
imagination to work on the possibilities.
Creative thinking: you must imagine possibilities for what things mean, but your interpretation
has to be based on what has been your experience, and it will have to bounded by reason.
Imagination relies equally on memory. It is impossible to imagine something that is completely
out of your realm of experience.

Communication:
The communication between you and the author – indirect communication-. The communication
is through the meaning of the text. The author will employ a wide range of tools to communicate
you through, images symbols and elements of setting a variety of characters and actions the
meaning of which must be interpreted. In order for you to be able to receive the authors
communication effectively, you must know how to use the technology, as it were. Imagine that
the text is a machine, and you must learn how to run it, just as you learned to use your computer
or your smartphone or your car.
With adds and advertisements you can establish a communication from the perspective on a
immanent. However, with different literary texts you will approach the communication from the
perspective of understanding the influence of culture on any given text.
The aim = communication from the author to you and that you could aim to close the gap
between the knowledge of the world and of literature and its features and the authors.

Perspective:
Multiple perspectives exit within a text. You must work to be aware of your own perspective,
and how your time and place and your personal knowledge influences what you are capable of
understanding in any given texts. One of the most important skills in interpreting both, literary
and non literary works, is open-mindedness. We have to be ready for characters to have
motivations and vales we don’t expect. Most works of literature require us to consider
perspectives different from our own and potentially difficult to appreciate and respect.
Transformation:
The variety of ways in which texts are transform from one another. Intertextuality, the reference
in one text to an early one. Allusion: explicit reference to another text. Romeo & Juliet by Arthur
Brooke. A familiar kind of transformation is text to film. Translations are transformations.
Representation:
The concept of representation focuses your attention on the relationship of a literary work to
reality – fiction.
How something not true can convey any truth? The characters are not real people, but they can
represent real people, we can see their motivations. The themes and ideas must convey some
truth about human experience, human nature, or human relationships.

Questions for each unit:

Readers, writers, and texts

1. Why and how do we study language and literature?

Time and Space

1. How do we approach literary texts from different times and cultures to our own?
2. How important is cultural or historical context to the production and reception of a text?
3. To what extend do literary texts offer an insight into another culture?
4. You might have thought as you read through the text, that you need more conceptual
understanding to understand what you are reading. How helpful is it to know something
 about the context of a work to understand it? Can we ever have enough context to truly
understand it?
5. How does the impact and meaning of a text change over time?
6. How do texts reflect, represent or form part of cultural practices?
7. How does language represent social distinctions and identities?

Intertextuality

1. How do texts adhere to and deviate from conventions associated with literary forms or text
types?
2. How do conventions and systems of reference evolve over time?
3. In what ways can diverse texts shape points of similarity?
4. How valid is the notion of classic text?
5. How can texts offer multiple perspectives of a single issue, topic or theme?
6. In what ways can comparison and interpretation be transformative?

Conceptual questions:

Identity
What does it mean to be human and how do we see this in the text?
How is the writer’s identity represented in the text?
How does the reader’s identity affect the way one reads a text?
How can we communicate individual perspectives?
How does the text convey cultural identity?
Culture
How does a text relate to its context?
In what way is the text part of a dialogue of literature of a particular culture?
Do texts create cultural identities or do the identities shape the texts?
How do texts demonstrate a transformation of culture over time?
Creativity
How does imagination affect the creation and reception of a text?
What is the purpose of creativity in society?
How does creative thought shape identity?
How original is the text and how might a response or pastiche also be considered creative?
Communication
How is a ‘relationship’ established between a writer and a reader by means of a text?
What is the purpose of media communication in society?
How can we correctly interpret the intended message of a text?
What does communication have to do with the human identity?
Perspective
What insight does the perspective of a text offer?
How do changes of perspective within a text or between different texts allow us to better
understand a theme?
How is cultural perspective communicated in a text?
How does social media (or other text types) allow us to view multiple perspective on a theme?
To what extent do texts limit perspectives?
Transformation
How does the dialogue of literature demonstrate changes in ideas or text types over time?
How does adaptation demonstrate and interact with ideas from the original text?
What does a text type evolution have to do with purpose and context?
How can a text or texts transform a reader’s perspective?
Representation
To what extent do fictional texts represent reality?
To what extent do nonfictional texts have a duty to represent truth?
What philosophical perspectives are included in texts to understand the authors interpretation of
reality?
What do art and aesthetics have to do with reality and truth?