Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz published an article titled “Sedimental Education: or, Reading as We Age” in a PMLA feature on “Reading over Time.” PMLA is the journal of the Modern Language Association of America.
Rabinowitz said there has been much discussion recently about the “late styles” found in works created during artists’ final years; the five authors whose essays were solicited for this PMLA cluster ask whether there might also be late styles of reading and interpretation.
Rabinowitz’s essay, which concludes the set, focuses on how late reading strategies, at least for teachers, are tied up with rereading — specifically, rereading for class.
Among other things, Rabinowitz draws attention to the way that the ghosts of other readers with whom you have shared a particular text continue to haunt your interpretative practice even after they are no longer there.
In addition to the essay, Rabinowitz, along with Faye Halpern of the University of Calgary, co-authored the introduction to the five-essay collection.
