A notable feature of current approaches to reading (in first or second language) is a preoccupation with the internal "causes" of comprehension, regarded as a terminal state of the cognitive system. Yet by allowing only for a private encounter between reader and text, the cognitive approach lacks terms to give more than a contingent account of their participation in a community and history of other texts and other readings. Instead, it reflects the modern myth of the individual as primary social fact and unit of analysis. This paper discusses some of the drawbacks of the cognitive approach, and outlines a more promising Vygotskyan alternative. (Contains 53 references.) (Author)