Be sure to attend the panel discussion on April 11 when Martin-Rodriguez and other local authors from this book, including Lucia Vazquez will be visiting the Visalia Library for National Library Week. The panelists will highlight the important role of books and reading by reading from the book and telling stories from their lives.
Summary:
Literary history is a history of reading.
What happens during the act of reading is the subject of the branch of
literary scholarship known as reader response theory. Does the text
guide the reader? Does the reader operate independently of the text?
Questions like these shape the approach of the essays in this book
edited by a scholar known for his groundbreaking work in using reader
response theory as a window into Chicana and Chicano literature.
Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez has overseen several research projects aimed at documenting Chicana and Chicano reading practices and experiences. Here he gathers diverse and passionate accounts of reading drawn from that research. Books for many served as refuges from the sorrows of a childhood marked by violence or parental abandonment. And many of the contributors salute the roles of teachers in introducing poetry and stories into their lives.
Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez has overseen several research projects aimed at documenting Chicana and Chicano reading practices and experiences. Here he gathers diverse and passionate accounts of reading drawn from that research. Books for many served as refuges from the sorrows of a childhood marked by violence or parental abandonment. And many of the contributors salute the roles of teachers in introducing poetry and stories into their lives.
We will be meeting in the Visalia Branch Blue Room to discuss this book on May 5 from 6:30pm - 7:45pm.
