Qualities of Reading Practices Outlined in Mckenzie and Grafton and Jardines Texts - Essay Example

Both these texts provide vital insights on how the qualities of reading practices enable imperialism and affect political change. A discussion on the various qualities of reading practices helps in a historical understanding of the ways in which humanistic-ally trained readers assimilated and responded to imperialism and political change. For example, the introduction of printed text to the Maori people in New Zealand had a crucial influence on their understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi. In other words, the reading practices of the Maori had a critical influence on the meaning of imperialism and political change in the region. This paper makes a reflective exploration of how the qualities of reading practices outlined in McKenzie and Grafton and Jardine’s texts enable imperialism.

One of the major studies of the principles of bibliography, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts by D.F. McKenzie establishes that the material form of texts remarkably determines their meanings. According to McKenzie, texts take on different forms and meanings as they are reproduced and re-read. He maintains that a reader in the pursuit of historical meanings moves from “the most minute feature of the material form of the book to questions of authorial, literary, and social context. These all bear in turn on the ways in which texts are then re-read, re-edited, re-designed, re-printed, and re-published. If a history of readings is made possible only by a comparative history of books, it is equally true that a history of books will have no point if it fails to account for the meanings they later come to make.” (McKenzie, 1999, p. 23).

The meaning gained in the beginning is completely changed in the reading of the new forms of the text which are re-read, re-edited, re-designed, re-printed, and re-published. Therefore, one’s reading practice is influenced by the material form of the book which, in turn, affects the meaning of the text.

Lisa Jardine and Anthony Grafton’s seminal article “‘Studied for Action’: How Gabriel Harvey Read His Livy” is a classic example of how reading practice can influence one’s understanding and meaning of the text. Based on an exploration of how Gabriel Harvey practiced the reading of Livy, Jardine and Grafton establish that Harvey’s interpretation of Livy is considerably changed each time he reads it with different purposes in his mind. The article maintains that the different reading practices carried out by Harvey led to different outcomes. In fact, the different reading practices can lead to different meanings of the same text and this fluctuation in the meaning can affect the overall outcome of the reading practice. “Thus critical reading, skillful annotation and active appropriation emerge as the central skills, not just of the student of history, but of the intellectual tout court. Reading always leads to action – but only proper reading in the manner of a Gabriel Harvey.” (Jardine and Grafton, 1990, p. 76).

According to Jardine and Grafton, the early modern readers used to actively reinterpret their texts rather than passively receive them. In this article, the authors provide a convincing illustration of how the ‘reading as intended to give rise to something else’ can influence the meaning of the text and, in turn, affect political changes. To them, scholarly reading has always been goal-oriented and conducted under conditions of strenuous attentiveness. Therefore, “this ‘activity of reading’ characteristically envisaged some other outcome of reading beyond the accumulation of information; and that envisaged outcome then shaped the relationship between reader and text.” (Jardine and Grafton, 1990, p. 31).

In a reflective exploration of the qualities of reading practices outlined in McKenzie and Grafton and Jardine’s texts, it becomes evident that reading practices performed in a particular socio-cultural context can influence the meaning of the text which may also enable imperialism in the given context. Significantly, the material form of texts, as well as the reading practice observed, crucially determines their meanings and affects political changes in the various contexts. For example, the reading practices of the Maori influenced the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi. In other words, the reading practices of the Maori had a pertinent impact on the political change in the land.