Comparing Sedgwick's Paranoid Reading And Reparative Reading

In conclusion, reparative reading begins with the reader sacrificing the primordial fear of the unknown and replacing it with a sort of intrigue. Sedgwick explains, “To read from a reparative position is to surrender the knowing, paranoid determination that no horror, shall come to the reader as new” (146). The reparative position encourages the reader to break away from their typical defensive perception on unknown knowledge and to instead accept surprise a realistic and even necessary experience to form interpretations. Reparative reading is additive and accretive, while paranoid reading expresses “minimalist elegance and conceptual economy”. Sedgwick challenges the status of common sense in her essay “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading”