The idea of “reading something into” a poem came up in a discussion just now. I was supposedly “reading something into” a poem; hence my reading of the poem was implied to be wrong.
Whether or not I was doing so, I’m curious if anyone knows of any essays/research that address the issue of “reading into”.
It seems like several issues are involved:
Whether or not I was doing so, I’m curious if anyone knows of any essays/research that address the issue of “reading into”.
It seems like several issues are involved:
- “Reading” the poem is distinguished from “reading into” the poem.
- “Reading” the poem is *distinguishable* from “reading into” the poem.
- The claim that someone is “reading something into” the poem, that something is being “read into” it, is used to call the validity of that reading into question.
- The person making that claim is rhetorically staking out a position of being a better “reader” of the poem: “I am not ‘reading into’ the poem; you are. And my reading is thus better.”
- In what contexts does the claim about “reading into” come up? Who speaks? Who is spoken to? — It’s the kind of thing a professor might say to a student, but it’s something a student would surely rarely say to a professor.
So there's a theoretical issue (how to distinguish "reading X" from "reading into X") and a sociological issue (who uses the criticism, and of whom, and in what context).