Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons

Paying Attention to Public Readers of Canadian Literature examines contemporary moments when Canadian literature has been canonized in the context of popular reading programs. I investigate the canonical agency of public readers who participate in these programs: readers acting in a non-professional...

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Main Author: Grafton, Kathryn
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2010
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27707
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spelling ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-277072018-01-05T17:24:32Z Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons Grafton, Kathryn Paying Attention to Public Readers of Canadian Literature examines contemporary moments when Canadian literature has been canonized in the context of popular reading programs. I investigate the canonical agency of public readers who participate in these programs: readers acting in a non-professional capacity who speak and write publicly about their reading experiences. I argue that contemporary popular canons are discursive spaces whose constitution depends upon public readers. My work resists the common critique that these reading programs and their canons produce a mass of readers who read the same work at the same time in the same way. To demonstrate that public readers are canon-makers, I offer a genre approach to contemporary canons that draws upon literary and new rhetorical genre theory. I contend in Chapter One that canons are discursive spaces comprised of public literary texts and public texts about literature, including those produced by readers. I study the intertextual dynamics of canons through Michael Warner’s theory of publics and Anne Freadman’s concept of “uptake.” Canons arise from genre systems that are constituted to respond to exigencies readily recognized by many readers, motivating some to participate. I argue that public readers’ agency lies in the contingent ways they select and interpret a literary work while taking up and instantiating a canonizing genre. Subsequent chapters examine the genre systems of three reading programs: One Book, One Vancouver, a public book club; Canada Reads, a celebrity “book brawl”; and The Complete Booker, an online reading challenge. Chapter Two explores how a reading public and canon are called forth by organizers and participants of the One Book, One Vancouver genre system. Chapter Three analyzes public readers’ collective literary selection within the canonizing genre of the Canada Reads brawl. Chapter Four investigates how participants in The Complete Booker genre system instantiate the canon of the Man Booker Prize in ways that construct distinct subject positions of public readers who can evaluate the Canadian Booker winners in meaningful ways for their imagined public. My conclusion proposes that paying attention to public readers offers us new insights into reading as shared practice and Canadian literature. Arts, Faculty of English, Department of Graduate 2010-08-24T18:49:32Z 2010-08-24T18:49:32Z 2010 2010-11 Text Thesis/Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27707 eng Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ University of British Columbia
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
description Paying Attention to Public Readers of Canadian Literature examines contemporary moments when Canadian literature has been canonized in the context of popular reading programs. I investigate the canonical agency of public readers who participate in these programs: readers acting in a non-professional capacity who speak and write publicly about their reading experiences. I argue that contemporary popular canons are discursive spaces whose constitution depends upon public readers. My work resists the common critique that these reading programs and their canons produce a mass of readers who read the same work at the same time in the same way. To demonstrate that public readers are canon-makers, I offer a genre approach to contemporary canons that draws upon literary and new rhetorical genre theory. I contend in Chapter One that canons are discursive spaces comprised of public literary texts and public texts about literature, including those produced by readers. I study the intertextual dynamics of canons through Michael Warner’s theory of publics and Anne Freadman’s concept of “uptake.” Canons arise from genre systems that are constituted to respond to exigencies readily recognized by many readers, motivating some to participate. I argue that public readers’ agency lies in the contingent ways they select and interpret a literary work while taking up and instantiating a canonizing genre. Subsequent chapters examine the genre systems of three reading programs: One Book, One Vancouver, a public book club; Canada Reads, a celebrity “book brawl”; and The Complete Booker, an online reading challenge. Chapter Two explores how a reading public and canon are called forth by organizers and participants of the One Book, One Vancouver genre system. Chapter Three analyzes public readers’ collective literary selection within the canonizing genre of the Canada Reads brawl. Chapter Four investigates how participants in The Complete Booker genre system instantiate the canon of the Man Booker Prize in ways that construct distinct subject positions of public readers who can evaluate the Canadian Booker winners in meaningful ways for their imagined public. My conclusion proposes that paying attention to public readers offers us new insights into reading as shared practice and Canadian literature. === Arts, Faculty of === English, Department of === Graduate
author Grafton, Kathryn
spellingShingle Grafton, Kathryn
Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
author_facet Grafton, Kathryn
author_sort Grafton, Kathryn
title Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
title_short Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
title_full Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
title_fullStr Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
title_full_unstemmed Paying attention to public readers of Canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
title_sort paying attention to public readers of canadian literature : popular genre systems, publics, and canons
publisher University of British Columbia
publishDate 2010
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27707
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