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.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore in which ways making music can become a central dramaturgical, narrative and performative driver of the mise-en-scne, using a production of Euripides' Phoenissae I supervised and directed at the Universitt Hildesheim in 2004.
Abstract: Using a production of Euripides' Phoenissae I supervised and directed at the Universitt Hildesheim in 2004 as a main example, this article seeks to explore in which ways making music (or better, in Christopher Small's term, musicking) can become a central dramaturgical, narrative and performative driver of the mise-en-scne. In the given case it resulted in a hybrid of performative genres and contained elements of a concert, an installation, a story-telling event, straight theatre and chorus recitation. Through this hybridization the production questioned the nature of the following relationships: (1) Music/stage: the production stretched the notion of music on stage to music with the stage. The stage was equally a performative space, a sound box and sonic space. (2) Performer/character: the production questioned the role of the performers who continually oscillated between being actors, narrators, chorus and musicians. Musicking became performative action and vice versa. (3) Performance/narrative: musicking, spatial design, visual imagery and the audience's interpretative reception intertwined to introduce forms of theatrical narrative that I will argue to be emergent.
1 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: This article examined the role of judgement in the early stages of Fielding's literary and legal career and found that the early plays gave Fielding the space in which to experiment with the presentation of character and his relationship to his audience.
Abstract: To be placed above the Reach of Deceit is to be placed above the Rank of a human Being Henry Fielding, A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning, 1753 Throughout his literary and legal careers, Fielding was concerned with the difficulties of reading and judging character accurately. He saw society as being rife with deceptive and duplicitous individuals and articulated his concerns in his writing, offering various advices to his readers. This thesis examines Fielding’s changing approaches to characterization and his proposed methods for judging character. There is a strong tradition within Fielding criticism, particularly prevalent in the mid-twentieth century, of seeing Fielding’s characters as ‘essential’, that is to say, innate and unchanging: the product of his theory of ‘Conservation of Character’. As such, his characters are often deemed easy-to-read and lacking fully-determined internal lives. Since the mid-1990s, however, critics have begun to argue that his characters are more dynamic than first supposed. While critics have noted the role of judgement in Fielding’s novels, it has not yet been explored in depth in his plays. With some notable exceptions, few studies have explored the interrelation between his novels and plays in a sustained way. I argue that Fielding examines questions of discerning character in both his plays and his novels, and that the early plays are essential for understanding the concepts which are central to his theory of judgement. This thesis contributes to studies of Fielding in three ways: by intervening in long-standing discussions of Fielding’s 7 characterization; by analysing themes of good nature, perception and gossip which develop from his early dramatic work into the better-known novels; and by exploring its relationship to wider ideas about character in the eighteenth-century theatre and novel. Beginning with his plays, I consider Fielding’s presentation of the judgement of character in a range of his works from 1728-1753. I suggest that the early plays gave Fielding the space in which to experiment with the presentation of character and his relationship to his audience. His novels build upon concepts first introduced in the plays, such as good nature, perception and gossip, which he suggests are key to perceiving character. Fielding encourages his audiences and readers to engage with character as a process of discovery (as it is in life), but does not punish or mock them when they make mistakes. In doing so, he gives his audiences and readers indulgences he could ill afford in his magisterial career: time for judgement and the luxury of occasionally being proved wrong.
1 citations
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: The psychoanalytic reader-theory as discussed by the authors is a particular species of the reader-response in general, and it can mean the reader subjected to analysis as a key element in literary theory, and the reader as equivalent to the analysand in a psychoanalysis, making discoveries as a result of her or his analytic text.
Abstract: My title is a pun. On the one hand it can mean the Reader subjected to analysis as a key element in literary theory, on the other the Reader as equivalent to the analysand in a psychoanalysis, making discoveries as a result of her or his analytic text. This chapter has two emphases corresponding to these two aspects — the first being reader-response in general, the second a particular species of the first, namely psychoanalytic reader-theory.1
1 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jul 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the place of the child within the domains of children's literature criticism from the angle of childist criticism, mainly as regards the production of literature.
Abstract: This thesis examines the place of the child within the domains of children's literature criticism from the angle of childist criticism, mainly as regards the production of literature. The introduction briefly addresses the world of children's literature criticism and puts forward some of the fundamental issues which will be dealt with as the thesis develops. Chapter One looks at some of the arguments put forward by Jacqueline Rose and Karin Lesnik-Oberstein and their reading of the fundamental issues regarding the place of the child in the writing and criticism of children's literature. The chapter draws parallels between their work and that of Jean-Jacques Lecercle as he writes about the notion of alterity. Chapter Two introduces the notion of childist criticism, its origins, uses, and shortcomings. Through childist criticism, the chapter offers an alternative position to that of Rose and Lesnik-Oberstein. Chapter Three considers some of implications deriving from the arguments developed in Chapter One and Chapter Two. Some institutional possibilities are developed. Based on the notions of cultural respect and unconditionality, the chapter considers, and disrupts, the binary opposition between childhood and adulthood, as well as offers some academic possibilities as far as children's literature studies are concerned. The conclusion summarises the key issues dealt with in the thesis and suggests some more possibilities as far as the development of childist criticism is concerned, especially regarding the notions of education and children's rights.
1 citations
1 citations