68 – Interpretation: reading and taking notes
we might similarly interpret the first statement to be explaining the
second, ascribing a cause of the Revolution. But were this to
have been written
The winter of 1788–9 was a very harsh one in France, inflicting untold
misery on the peasants. Nevertheless, the Revolution broke out in July
1789.
we are immediately faced with a puzzle. Far from ascribing a cause, the
first statement is now conceded to be a countercondition for the outbreak of revolution: perhaps the implication is that miserable peasants
turn in on themselves and their problems and are not expected to be
found fomenting revolution on the streets. The signal of the change
in function from ‘ascribing a cause’ to ‘conceding a countercondition’ is contained wholly in the linking adverbial ‘nevertheless’. You
may speculate what other changes of function and meaning would be
signalled by ‘coincidentally’, ‘be that as it may’ or ‘indeed’.
There are three main kinds of motive and intention you need
to be able to recognise in order to begin to interpret what an author
is doing. The first concerns the author’s relationship to other writers;
the second the author’s ways of analysing the subject matter; and the
third the structuring of the subject matter into a coherent sequence of
ideas. We shall put them in terms of questions you can ask the text.
They are these:
r What is the author’s main aim or motive in writing the work
(or the part of it in which you are interested), with respect to
what others have previously written on the subject?
r What modes of discourse does the writer employ to analyse
the subject matter itself, and how is this carried out?
r What does the writer do to structure his or her analyses into
a coherent sequence of ideas? How are the parts fitted
together in order to compose the whole?
The next three sections of this chapter will examine each of
these in turn.
we might similarly interpret the first statement to be explaining the
second, ascribing a cause of the Revolution. But were this to
have been written
The winter of 1788–9 was a very harsh one in France, inflicting untold
misery on the peasants. Nevertheless, the Revolution broke out in July
1789.
we are immediately faced with a puzzle. Far from ascribing a cause, the
first statement is now conceded to be a countercondition for the outbreak of revolution: perhaps the implication is that miserable peasants
turn in on themselves and their problems and are not expected to be
found fomenting revolution on the streets. The signal of the change
in function from ‘ascribing a cause’ to ‘conceding a countercondition’ is contained wholly in the linking adverbial ‘nevertheless’. You
may speculate what other changes of function and meaning would be
signalled by ‘coincidentally’, ‘be that as it may’ or ‘indeed’.
There are three main kinds of motive and intention you need
to be able to recognise in order to begin to interpret what an author
is doing. The first concerns the author’s relationship to other writers;
the second the author’s ways of analysing the subject matter; and the
third the structuring of the subject matter into a coherent sequence of
ideas. We shall put them in terms of questions you can ask the text.
They are these:
r What is the author’s main aim or motive in writing the work
(or the part of it in which you are interested), with respect to
what others have previously written on the subject?
r What modes of discourse does the writer employ to analyse
the subject matter itself, and how is this carried out?
r What does the writer do to structure his or her analyses into
a coherent sequence of ideas? How are the parts fitted
together in order to compose the whole?
The next three sections of this chapter will examine each of
these in turn.