Tidskrift för lärarutbildning och forskning 4-02/1-03

Greeting
to the Conference
Louise M Rosenblatt
I wish to express my appreciation to those who
have cooperated in bringing about the translation
of my book into Swedish. Some years ago, I
typed some signs on a page, and, miraculously,
others who spoke English were able to share
my thoughts. Now, Swedish people who know
the English linguistic sign-system have chosen
Swedish signs that they feel best correspond to
my thoughts. Every translation is an interpretation,
the product of the transaction between the
translator and the signs on the page.
I regret that I do not know Swedish, but I
noticed that the Swedish title had several more
words than the English title. I used my Swedish-
English dictionary and found The reading of
literature as investigation and discovery. I do not
know whether that is correct, but it generated
the idea of sharing with you how I came to
choose the title, Literature as Exploration.
I was pleased at the introduction of “litteraturlassning”,
because it signals the fact that the
book is about a theory of reading, and about the
way of teaching literature to foster growth both
in reading competence and in critical thinking. I
also wondered about how Swedish readers would
relate the two concepts, investigation and discovery
to the complex reading process.
My theory concerns the contribution of both
the individual reader and the text, the signs on
the page, to the creation of the literary work.
Any reading event can produce either a literary
work, a poem, a novel, or a scientific work, a
historical work. For both kinds of reading there
is always present some awareness of both factual,
cognitive aspects of consciousness and affective,
aspects-feelings, emotions, associations.
The reader is always simultaneously directing
attention at both the actual and the feeling
aspects of awareness. On the one hand, the
sense of the literal, verifiable dictionary [lexical]
meaning of the signs on the page; on the other
hand, simultaneously, the personal associations,
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