Meaning making in literature reading: selective attention betwe en genders

Abstract

Readers play a vital role in exploring meaning of a literary text. This case study examined the stances and types of personal responses of two teenagers, a male and a female, during the meaning making process of a short story entitled ‘Fair’s Fair’ by Narinder Dhami. The objectives of this study are to identify the types of stances adopted by the two genders, to identify the types of personal responses made by the two genders and to analyze how the stances and personal responses are being adopted in relation to their meaning making process. Through the use of think-aloud protocol and personal interview, the participants revealed rich qualitative findings that were derived using thematic analysis. There were striking differences in the stances adopted and personal responses projected by the two genders. Male teenager elicited more critical response while female teenager elicited more aesthetic response. Interesting patterns of 'selective attention' were uncovered, where male did more inferring responses while female produced more personally connected responses. Nevertheless, both of them produced textual and moral responses. In conclusion, this shows that generally, male tend to associate the context of text critically in determining meaning, while female tend to associate themselves with the text to create meaning.