The Crafty Reader

By Robert Scholes

Book Overview

"I believe that it is in our interest as individuals to become crafty readers, and in the interest of the nation to educate citizens in the craft of reading. The craft, not the art. . . . This book is about that craft."--from the Introduction

This latest book from the well-known literary critic Robert Scholes presents his thoughtful exploration of the craft of reading. He deals with reading not as an art or performance given by a virtuoso reader, but as a craft that can be studied, taught, and learned. Those who master the craft of reading, Scholes contends, will justifiably take responsibility for the readings they produce and the texts they choose to read.

Scholes begins with a critique of the New Critical way of reading ("bad for poets and poetry and really terrible for students and teachers of poetry"), using examples of poems by various writers, in particular Edna St. Vincent Millay. He concludes with a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the fundamentalist way of reading texts regarded as sacred.

To explain and clarify the approach of the crafty reader, the author analyzes a wide-ranging selection of texts by figures at the margins of the literary and cultural canon, including Norman Rockwell, Ana s Nin, Dashiell Hammett, and J. K. Rowling. Throughout his discussion Scholes emphasizes how concepts of genre affect the reading process and how they may work to exclude certain texts from the cultural canon and curriculum.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300191545
• ISBN13: 9780300191547
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Readable, Smart, Convincing

Scholes' prose is crisp and clear. His critique of the New Critics is hardly new, but it is efficiently done. Perhaps most interesting is the range of texts Scholes' approaches, from poetry to online posts by High School students to the Bible (read through Southern Baptists and the Pope, among others). He does a good job looking at Harry Potter and Edna St. Vincent Millay alike, and in both cases, he shows how satisfying reading can be when we strip away the demands of the New Critics and allow ourselves the luxury of a reading informed by an understanding of genre and history. One of the most useful things in this book for me was its neat description of the evolution of a genre (Scholes describes the renaissance, classical and baroque periods of genres like Fantasy and Mysteries).As an English teacher, this book is something of a Bible for me. I refer to it often when I am trying to explain what and how I try to teach. That said, it is, admittedly, short on technique. It is not always (or even often) clear how to bring Scholes' ideas from the page to the classroom. To be fair, his intent was not to produce a manual, but still, as a teacher convinced by much of his argument, I often wish he had. In spite of his critique of "virtuoso readings", much of the joy of this book comes in appreciating Scholes' own considerable virtuosity as he takes on one underappreciated genre after another.Scholes' readings are delightful and his language is refreshingly unpretentious. This is a fast read and well worth the effort for any interested reader and, especially, for any teacher of English.