Novice interpreters, transmedia fictions and the afferent stance

Abstract

Louise Rosenblatt's well‐known concept of stance distinguishes between efferent reading (reading to take something away from the text) and aesthetic reading (reading for the experience of dwelling in the text). This article proposes a refinement to this binary, adding the concept of afferent reading. Afference, in biology, means a bringing‐to, and afferent reading includes what interpreters bring to a text. This article particularly considers how afference works in a world of transmedia iterations of a story. What do young readers bring to their interpretation of a version of a story from other versions of the same story or the same story world? How does the concept of afference improve the ability of teachers and other adult observers to consider different renditions of the same story as a potential asset to young interpreters rather than simply a form of repetition?