Book•
The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett
01 Jan 1974-
TL;DR: Iser as mentioned in this paper analyzed major works of English fiction ranging from Bunyan, Fielding, Scott, and Thackeray to Joyce and Beckett, and provided a framework for a theory of such literary effects and aesthetic responses.
Abstract: Like no other art form, the novel confronts its readers with circumstances arising from their own environment of social and historical norms and stimulates them to assess and criticize their surroundings. By analyzing major works of English fiction ranging from Bunyan, Fielding, Scott, and Thackeray to Joyce and Beckett, renowned critic Wolfgang Iser here provides a framework for a theory of such literary effects and aesthetic responses. Iser's focus is on the theme of discovery, whereby the reader is given the chance to recognize the deficiencies of his own existence and the suggested solutions to counterbalance them. The content and form of this discovery is the calculated response of the reader -- the implied reader. In discovering the expectations and presuppositions that underlie all his perceptions, the reader learns to "read" himself as he does the text.
Citations
More filters
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make an incursion through Eca de Queiros' narratives which were adapted into film by specially highlighting the revitalization of classical narratives provided by cinema.
Abstract: Historically, narrative art is assumed as a fundamental element of human living. In this sense, cinema and literature come together in the territory of literary adaptation in order to satisfy a collective need. Thus, in the context of intertextual dialogue, we understand that many filmic contents have its roots in classical novels, such as the Portuguese well-known canonical writer Eca de Queiros. Eca’ literary heritage has been transposed in film over time and the latest creation by Manoel de Oliveira (Singularities of a blond girl, 2009), based on a novel from the nineteenth century by Eca de Queiros, is the confirmation that classic texts from this author continue to catalyze the filmmakers’ interest and enhance contemporary interpretations. This interest is explained by the fact that Eca de Queiros’ novels, not only offer us sublime narratives and whose dramatic potential is well known, but it also creates plots, characters and social or cultural representations that, although ironic and caricatured, continue to be recognized in modern times. Therefore, it seems that if literature collaborates closely with film, this successful association allows not only for the renewal of literary memory, but also for the democratization of cultural Portuguese literary heritage and perpetuates these stories to new generations, which seem of understandable importance. Based on the argument that cinema and literature establish a productive relationship in the context of literary adaptation, we intend to make an incursion through Eca de Queiros’ narratives which were adapted into film by specially highlighting the revitalization of classical narratives provided by cinema.
1 citations
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: The authors investigated the philosophical intentions behind Murdoch's prose fiction, and explored its technical properties and affective aspect, finding that a great deal of Murdoch's fictional work self-consciously deals with the creative impulse and the process of creation, and it is a phenomenological approach which may best explain the many ambiguities, tensions, and contradictions lying at the heart of her work.
Abstract: How does Iris Murdoch’s work fit into a congress on phenomenology? Murdoch has vehemently rejected the phenomenological novel, debunked the moral, logic, and aesthetic position of its representatives, and in 1950 described phenomenology rather callously as an “a priori theory of meaning with a psychological flavour and a highly developed descriptive technique”.1 And yet, her first novel unquestionably bears the stamp of French existentialism, and up to the present day, her fictions have voraciously absorbed Sartre, Kant, Plato, Hegel, to name only a few, and exploited a plethora of ideas and concepts borrowed from such diverse sources as Socialism, Buddhism, Christian doctrine, Symbolist aesthetics, etc., only — as I propose to show — to cast light on a question central to phenomenological enquiry: How does man fare in view of a world that exists separately and independently? To exemplify man’s approach to and recognition of external reality, a great deal of Murdoch’s fictional work self-consciously deals with the creative impulse and the process of creation, and it is a phenomenological approach which may best explain the many ambiguities, tensions, and contradictions lying at the heart of her work. The aim of this paper is on the one hand to investigate the philosophical intentions behind Murdoch’s prose fiction, and on the other to explore its technical properties and affective aspect.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the potential of ethnographic video narratives for collaborative learning in an interdisciplinary context, and describe the area between tacit knowing and expli cation.
Abstract: This article explores the potential of ethnographic video narratives for collaborative learning in an interdisciplinary context. Previous research describes the area between tacit knowing and expli...
1 citations
Cites background from "The Implied Reader: Patterns of Com..."
...The implied reader is defined “both as a textual condition and a process of meaning production” (Iser 1974; Shi 2013, 984)....
[...]
...To capture the interplay between the different focus-group participants and the video narratives we draw on the thinking of Wolfgang Iser (1978), who says that a meaning-making process takes place in an oscillation between text (in this case the video narrative) and the reader (in this case the various professionals)....
[...]
...In order to grasp how the participants understand and possibly learn from the collaborative dialogues about the video narratives we combine sociocultural perspectives on learning with literary theory as it has been developed by the German literary theorist, Wolfgang Iser (1974; 1978)....
[...]
...In the process of making meaning of the interplay between the textual structure of the narratives and the analytical competences and experiences of the participants, different implied readings were formed (Iser 1974)....
[...]