Eve Sedgwick Paranoid Reading

In “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading”, Eve Sedgwick, attempts to evaluate the current modes of interpretation, not to criticize the methodologies, but instead illuminate the actualities of monopolistic forms of interpretation and its imposing effect on the utilization of an equally valid alternative. That form of interpretation is called paranoid reading. Eve Sedgwick begins the essay with a personal story of her casual experience with paranoid reading. Through that experience, Sedgwick illustrated the commonly unaware concept of the hermeneutics of suspicion. The concept focuses on recovering meanings that may or may not be hidden or repressed by their representations, or the surface of a text. Much like the respective forms of interpretation …show more content…
The paranoid position "is a position of terrible alertness to the dangers posed by the hateful and envious part-objects that one defensively projects into" (128). It implants a sense of suspicion upon objects that questions the intentions of the objects that aren't outrightly displayed. The depressive position "is an anxiety mitigating position that… allows one to possibly use one’s own resources to assemble or “repair” the murderous-part objects into a whole. A whole of one’s creation” (128). The depressive position allows one to construct personal understandings through the given information by without stretching so far as to make large inferences from the information. The depressive position forms an understanding of situations by acknowledging the realities of it and then using natural knowledge to reach a satisfying conclusion. The depressive position reflects the way that reparative reading purposefully uses the surface textual details to interpret literature. The paranoid position reflects how paranoid reading also actively seeks or implants meaning into text so that unforeseen knowledge is realized before it can surprise the