Question

Describe a situation in which you read something that had a particular context that was unfamiliar to you. Did you struggle to make sense of it? Did you need to get more information to ease your reading experience? One situation might be a book, a story, or an article that you had difficulty understanding because you didn't have some prior knowledge—historical, cultural, or technical. Another situation is a time when a text inspired you to gather information on a new topic.

As you describe and discuss the significance of context, consider these questions: Do certain genres of fiction often present more challenges in terms of unfamiliar context than others, and why? How much responsibility do you think writers should take to make their writing comprehensible to a broad group of readers? How much should readers have to fill in any gaps? Are such gaps inevitable when the writer wrote the text many years before the time of reading? If so, why, and in what time periods does this seem to be true?

Answer 1

Answer:

was reading a novel entitled "Shining" by Stephen King. The first few chapters were quite difficult to understand because the characters and settings were introduced. I had to flip the pages back and forth in order to remember the names and incidents.

Historical and cultural fiction usually pose more challenges in terms of unfamiliar context.