ABSTRACT
This chapter shifts the focus from individual readers to reading as a complex sociocultural system. If, as we saw in Chapter Two, readers construct meanings out of texts, then what instructions, rules or protocols govern the processes of construction?
The chapter discusses the role of interpretative conventions, cultural competences, educational institutions and media technologies in structuring the reading practices and habits of individuals. It draws on frame theory and theories of genre as well as notions of cultural capital, and provides examples from Roman scriptio continua and oral performance, heretical medieval reading practices, contemporary queer readings, the racialized technology of film and the current moment of hybrid digital/print culture. Ultimately, it argues that reading is best understood as a complex sociocultural system in which cognitive 109processes, interpretative and affective norms, bodily practices and media technologies are bound up together in acts and practices of reception.
