Having sold out one hardback and two paperback editions, Comparative Literature Professor Peter J. Rabinowitz's Before Reading: Narrative Conventions and the Politics of Interpretation has been reissued in the "Open Access Initiative" of Ohio State University Press.
Praised by the journal Novel as "a landmark book," Before Reading starts from the premise that any productive theory of narrative must take into account the presuppositions the reader brings to the text. It then goes on to explore how our prior knowledge of literary conventions influences the processes of interpretation and evaluation (including canon formation), with examples drawn from a wide variety of texts from both popular and high-art traditions.
The book is available for free download at http://www.ohiostatepress.org/Books/Complete%20PDFs/Rabinowitz%20Before/Rabinowitz%20Before.htm
Praised by the journal Novel as "a landmark book," Before Reading starts from the premise that any productive theory of narrative must take into account the presuppositions the reader brings to the text. It then goes on to explore how our prior knowledge of literary conventions influences the processes of interpretation and evaluation (including canon formation), with examples drawn from a wide variety of texts from both popular and high-art traditions.
The book is available for free download at http://www.ohiostatepress.org/Books/Complete%20PDFs/Rabinowitz%20Before/Rabinowitz%20Before.htm
