Stanley Cavell, Shakespeare and 'The Event' of reading

Mahon, Áine 2016. Stanley Cavell, Shakespeare and 'The Event' of reading. JOMEC Journal 10 , pp. 43-52. 10.18573/j.2016.10085

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (659kB) | Preview

Abstract

In the context of a third-level liberal arts education, this article interrogates the idea and practice of ‘reading’. Questioning what might be at stake more publicly in this most private of acts, I am interested particularly in how certain conceptualizations of reading inhibit the pedagogical moment in its essential unpredictability. When we refer to reading as a process of ‘comprehension’, ‘absorption’ or ‘appropriation’, I argue, there is a real danger that we obstruct or close down the horizon of textual experience. In development of this argument, I draw on the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. I focus particularly on Cavell's reading of King Lear, arguing that the philosopher's engagement with the Shakespearean text is interestingly at odds with the model of ‘active criticism’ so beloved and encouraged by departments of English Literature. As it forgoes typical educational emphases on the known and the fully certain, this Cavellian engagement aligns in interesting and important ways with the weak pedagogy of Derrida and Caputo. I conclude that this Cavellian mode of reading creates an enlightened space for teaching as event.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Liberal Arts Education; Reading; Pedagogy; Stanley Cavell
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	2049-2340
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	26 January 2017
Date of Acceptance:	1 December 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 22:32
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/97775

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item