HONR218G

Reading is one of the first things we teach children and is often seen as an essential skill of modern life. Why is that? What happens when we read, and why do we do it? How does reading for pleasure differ from the reading we do in school, online, or on the go? As we will see, debates still rage not just about why we read, but about who reads, and when and where and how they do it. This course explores how people have read historically and across cultures, from ancient scroll interpreters to modern book-nerds. Together, we will analyze specific reading methods that are commonly held to build skills like critical thinking, and we will ask how different disciplines read. We will also investigate why reading has long been understood as a liberating activity that enables its practitioners to flourish and, finally, we will ask whether a world mediated by text presents problems for those who lie outside its scope.