Reading is not limited to a singular approach; it involves the perception of written text through the sensory experience of the eyes and the transmission of information via the visual nervous system to the brain. Each individual’s brain is trained to process information in unique ways, influenced by factors such as personal identity, family background, and the ability to freely access information of interest on the internet in today’s technological society. Despite the universality of the act of “reading,” the specific mechanisms at play vary among individuals.

In this week’s reading materials, Sedgwick introduces the concept of “paranoid reading,” a term she coined to describe an approach characterized by a skeptical attitude and the search for hidden meanings or traces of conspiracy within a text. This approach involves scrutinizing the text with the premise of uncovering concealed intentions or messages. However, it is also crucial to delve into her broader framework that includes both paranoid reading and its counterpart, “reparative reading.” Paranoid reading, as previously mentioned, is marked by suspicion and a quest for exposing hidden agendas. On the other hand, reparative reading is an alternative mode of engagement with texts. It involves a more affirmative approach, focusing on healing, understanding, and transformative possibilities within the text. Sedgwick’s conceptualization encourages readers to consider both paranoid and reparative readings as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. This duality acknowledges the complexity of texts and the multifaceted ways in which individuals interpret and engage with them. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing the coexistence of suspicion and affirmation in the reading process. Furthermore, Sedgwick proposed Melanie Klein’s theory of “position” (p.128) to further refine this concept – the “depressive position”, in which individuals recognize both positive and negative aspects of people and situations, and the “paranoid-schizoid position”, in which individuals tend to split the world into binary categories of good and bad and often project unwanted aspects of themselves onto others. This splitting can lead to feelings of persecution and a fear of annihilation. People can be going back and forth within these two positions, thus either of it is not fixed.

Also, despite uncertainty of whether it relates to this or not, but I would like to mention the idea of “symptomatic reading”. Althusser introduces this term borrowing the word “symptom” from the field of psychoanalyst as a response to traditional “fencing-in reading,” arguing for a deeper, non-explicit interpretation. Symptomatic reading challenges two assumptions: first, the text’s consistency, contending that all obstacles can be unlocked by a single “fence”; second, the direct revelation of this “fence” by the author. Althusser suggests that true reading delves beyond surface content, revealing overlooked elements. The oversight is attributed to a lack of suitable viewing devices, defined as Althusser’s “general problem” or the “structure of structures.” Genuine understanding requires examining not only meaning but also the visual apparatus that filters and omits aspects.

This made me think of a particular chapter, “Shifting Political Positioning from Previous Studies to Current Affairs”. in my undergrad thesis, Postcolonial Taiwanese Film Studies ––Shifting Politics and “Seediq Bale” as Example of Indigenous Film. In that chapter, I argued the found underlying political position in the books written by current Taiwanese film studies scholars (written in the 2000s about films in the 1980s and 1990s) is different from that of most Taiwanese people nowadays; to be more specific, the scholars used the ideology of “the greater China” to categorize Taiwanese films, while after one decade, due to the change in political relationship and social change, Taiwanese films focus more on its own local issues and stories. I have to acknowledge that it can be counted as a kind of “paranoid reading”, but I still believe that revealing such difference is necessary.