Reader Positioning
Reader Positioning
Narratives encourage us to feel a particular way about the events and people in them. They often encourage us to align ourselves with one character in a narrative and not with others.
To align ourselves with a character means to be on their side or empathise with them. They might encourage us to feel sorry for character or admire them, disapprove of them or fear them. This is called reader positioning: narratives position reader to adopt particular feelings or attitudes.
Two ways narratives position us are through:
* the information they give us (what they tell us) * the language they use to give us the information ( how they tell us)
It is not intentional and we can’t always tell what writers intend.
Emotive Language
Is language that appeals to feelings. Two texts on same subject can evoke different feelings depending on emotive effect of words used.
* The lion killed the zebra.
* The aptly named king of the jungle, its magnificent muscles rippling with power, sprang upon the much-needed source of food, dispatching the life of its prey with efficiency.
* The savage beast ripped apart the throat of the gentle creature which had only moments before been grazing peacefully with its family.
First example- emotive?
Second example-
Third example-
Activity
Write 3 sentences describing one of the following events.
1. A dog bites someone.
The fierce animal leapt onto the young boy with all his might and tore off a part of the innocent boy’s leg. 2. It starts to rain.
I feel a trickle of water on my arm, then another, then another and just like that, it begins to pour with rain. 3. A fly is sprayed with insecticide.
The fly flew from tiny bits of fruit left on the kitchen table to the coffee stain from this morning. It did not even notice the lady holding the large can of insecticide above it and one minute the fly was picking at the coffee stain and the next it was drenched with
Narratives encourage us to feel a particular way about the events and people in them. They often encourage us to align ourselves with one character in a narrative and not with others.
To align ourselves with a character means to be on their side or empathise with them. They might encourage us to feel sorry for character or admire them, disapprove of them or fear them. This is called reader positioning: narratives position reader to adopt particular feelings or attitudes.
Two ways narratives position us are through:
* the information they give us (what they tell us) * the language they use to give us the information ( how they tell us)
It is not intentional and we can’t always tell what writers intend.
Emotive Language
Is language that appeals to feelings. Two texts on same subject can evoke different feelings depending on emotive effect of words used.
* The lion killed the zebra.
* The aptly named king of the jungle, its magnificent muscles rippling with power, sprang upon the much-needed source of food, dispatching the life of its prey with efficiency.
* The savage beast ripped apart the throat of the gentle creature which had only moments before been grazing peacefully with its family.
First example- emotive?
Second example-
Third example-
Activity
Write 3 sentences describing one of the following events.
1. A dog bites someone.
The fierce animal leapt onto the young boy with all his might and tore off a part of the innocent boy’s leg. 2. It starts to rain.
I feel a trickle of water on my arm, then another, then another and just like that, it begins to pour with rain. 3. A fly is sprayed with insecticide.
The fly flew from tiny bits of fruit left on the kitchen table to the coffee stain from this morning. It did not even notice the lady holding the large can of insecticide above it and one minute the fly was picking at the coffee stain and the next it was drenched with