I am finished with my transactional theory paper, but once or twice since then my mind wanders back to it. I remember reading about the two sides. One side was efferent, and the other was aesthetic. What makes this funny and interesting (at least to me) is how my mind worked to remember it,.. my schema. It is supposed to be this deeply intellectual thing, but my "assimilation" was kinda silly. The moment I read about aesthetic, and efferent reading, I immediately thought of Dharma and Greg. (hehe) For those of you who don't know this TV show from the 90s, I'll explain. Dharma and Greg were a couple that were complete opposites. As you can tell by her name, Dharma was this spiritual flower-child who was into the experience of life and feelings. Greg was a very stern, stoic, no frills, straight-to-the-point lawyer.
See. It fits!
Another thing about this transactional theory business that makes me wonder is if it can be applied to things other than reading. I'm sure some big-shot psychologist has thought about it already, but anyways let me go on. Words and letters are not the initial terms of discourse, meanings are. (Berthoff, 1991) So these meanings are associated with what we read, and these are "poems" right? But here's the kicker, can this transactional stuff be applied to not only text but everyday objects? Is there a poem created when a Chamorro villager from the 1950s sees a Japanese flag? A mother sees her baby? A teenager sees his girlfriend? When they see these "things", it has a meaning to them. Trippy!
Clifford, J., Berthoff A. (1991). The experience of reading : Louise Rosenblatt and reader-response theory. Portsmouth NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. p.81
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