This week reading, Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or, you’re so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you by Eve Sedgwick talks about paranoid and reparative reading as methods, frames – lets not think only about written texts, but everything able to be interpreted. She points out that paranoid reading can identify or reveal structural forms of oppression, but only this is not enough to perpetuate a significant change.
She defines paranoia as 1) anticipatory, 2) reflexive and mimetic, 3) strong theory, 4) theory of negative affects, and 5) places its faith in exposure. In the paranoid reading the reader have always his guards up, expecting for the worse, colocando à prova all that is presented to them. In contrast, the reparative reading tries to get the best out of the presented work.
At first it reminded me of a book called Pollyana, where the main character tries always see the good in the situations of her life. An example is, she goes live with a rich relative and among all the huge bedrooms in the house, she is placed in the attic without a window, just a beautiful painting of a garden. She convinces herself that with that painting instead of a window, all days will be sunny bright. A very patriarchal book to teach young girls how to behave. But later on you understand that reparative reading does not necessarily deny the “reality or gravity of enmity or oppression”, and that changes everything. Is the idea of a good and healthy digestive system keeping only what is good to the organism.