Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)
ÉVA ANTAL The Rhetoric and Ethics of Reading
70 Éva Antal and students, since all of us are involved, must be involved, in the process of Reading. And in a later work titled Victorian Subjects Miller emphatically connects the problem of responsibility expressed in the ethics of reading with the obligation of teachers. Being a reader, the teacher is also obliged to submit himself or herself to "the truth of the linguistic imperative" of reading, that is, to "the power of the words of the text over the mind" (Miller VS, 255). In this sense the teacher is taken as a revealer, not a creator and the way Miller describes the teacher's ethical reading is similar to the Socratic method: The obligation of the reader, the teacher, and the critic would seem to be exclusively epistemological. The reader must see clearly what the work in question says and repeat that meaning in his commentary or teaching. He functions thereby, modestly as an intermediary , as a midwife or catalyst He transmits meanings which are objectively there but which might not otherwise have reached readers or students. He brings the meaning to birth again as illumination and insight in their minds, making the interaction take place without himself entering into it or altering it. It would seem that the field covered by reading involves exclusively the epistemological categories of truth and falsehood, insight and blindness. (Miller VS, 237). I am sure the tone of this description can be felt as being quite ironic, and we should remember that the Socratic method itself was based on irony. We can wonder if the deconstructors think it is impossible to Read —that is, to give a definitive reading of a text —what is happening in the seminars. The answer is 'obvious': reading is happening as it is bound to take place. Maybe, it sounds strange after all these theoretical analyses, but being a teacher of English literature 4 I agree with the Yale-critics, who work or worked as teachers, that the questioning Socratic way is useful in teaching. Certainly, all of us are aware of the fact that —like in the Socratic dialogues —the questions are directed. Yet in the ethics of reading they are directed not by the teacher, but by the text: its rhetoric and linguistic imperative. This makes it possible for every student to read the text in his or her own way, while the teacher acts as mediator and moderator at the same time. I think that besides acting like a 'midwife' and encouraging the imaginative reading skill of the students, a good teacher needs something else —a sense of irony. Irony is needed to accept the students' different views 4 Though I obtained my PhD-degree in philosophy (more exactly, in aesthetics), I teach history of English literature and literary theory at the Department of English Studies. Actually, the combination of my present occupation and my philosophical attitude has resulted in my interest in the rhetoric and ethics of reading.
