The experience of presence. Transactional interpretation in education and existence

Abstract

The concept of transactional theory of literature and transactional interpretation hasn’t succeeded in literary education in Poland so far. Is this worthwhile to rejuvenate the idea elaborated by Louise Rosenblatt in 1930s and still has the fundamental significance for the western literary theory and education? The author tries to justify the suggestion of the necessity of „transactional turn” in teaching literature in Poland. It should be understood as the determined educational efforts to reveal and strengthen the mechanisms of exchange and transaction while reading literature. The lessons of reading always enable to activate the flow of reading experience and senses, to start the circulation of messages between the text and the reader. Simultaneously the reader becomes the one who recognize and is being recognised. It can lead young people to the significant individual and social growth and become a great educational opportunity.