Analysis Of Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory Of Reading

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other (Rosenblatt, 1993). In a transaction, the reader interprets the text using her personal and unique background. The text provokes a response in the reader that is never linear, nor sequential; it is a relationship in a continuum, situated in a particular sociocultural context, and marked by the historical point of view in which the reading event takes place. Rosemblat (2004) states that reading act is an event, or a transaction which involves a particular reader, a text, time, and context. The reader and the text are involved in a dynamic situation. The text does not have meaning on it, nor the reader assigns meaning to the text; it is in the transaction between the reader and the text where meaning emerges from the transaction between the reader and the text.
In Rosenblatt 's transactional theory of reading, pretending to bring the 'correct ' meaning of the text and assuming what the author 'really ' wants to express is problematic. Unless, the author of a text is physically in front of the reader explaining her intentions at the moment of writing, the reader needs to transacts with the text to construct meaning based on the culturally and socially situated context.
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The reader never comes to a reading event as a tabula rasa, she/he comes with an embedded appreciation and pre-conceptions of the text, which are constructed by the reader’s personal experiences and cultural and social situated background (Culler, 1980) By knowing the reader’s context, the teacher fully support the reader’s critical position towards a text and her/his evaluation and re-evaluation of beliefs and assumptions that are challenged by the reading

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