Situating Reader Stance Within and Beyond the Efferent–Aesthetic Continuum

Abstract

The purpose of this theoretical essay is to encourage critical reflection of the relationship of specific reading events to traditional conceptualizations of reader stance. While conventional models of reader stance are useful for considering many aspects of reading, there are reading events that engender stances that appear to lie outside of the parameters of these traditional conceptualizations. In this article, we identify one such reading event, termed reading-for-the-writer, and analyze the specific point it occupies on an efferent-aesthetic continuum, a continuum that we view as more three-dimensional than linear and that includes both reader stances and writer stances. Through such analyses of specific stances, we conclude with pedagogical implications and research directions that move toward continued discussion of the interconnectedness of reading and writing processes.