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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
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Book
24 Jun 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the sentiments and politics of Union and the racial beginnings of Britain are discussed. But the focus is on British masculinity and Scottish self-control, and not the racial origins of Britain.
Abstract: Introduction The sentiments and politics of Union 1 The Ossian controversy and the racial beginnings of Britain 2 British masculinity and Scottish self-control 3 Sentimental correspondences and the boundaries of British identity 4 National tales and domestication of the Scottish Highlands 5 Rebellions and re-unions in the historical novel

19 citations

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The authors examines representations of domestic discord in California literature with the argument that scenes of coercion in the literature's multiethnic households enact the aggressive dynamics of U.S. expansion and governance in the latter decades of the nineteenth century.
Abstract: This dissertation examines representations of domestic discord in California literature with the argument that scenes of coercion in the literature's multiethnic households enact the aggressive dynamics of U.S. expansion and governance in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The literary representations of political and familial forms of coercion presented here hinge upon the multiple scales implied with the term domestic, which include but are not limited to the private home space and the nation state. Between these spatial scales, the literary narrative of coupling and marriage on a private scale is then writ large as a national narrative of statehood and citizenship. Those writing in and about California in the aftermath of the U.S.-Mexican War were narrating a geography already inscribed with discourses of U.S. domestic policy with regards to its territories. The resulting U.S. narrative of migration and desire - enabled by the influx of gold rush speculators in 1849, the completion of the trans-continental railroad in 1868, and the various land booms and busts of the 1870s and 80s, came to define the region. The works examined here highlight the significance of California as a site of both national and international conquest. Almost all the homes depicted in this study house people who represent both the aggressors and casualties of westward migration and national expansion. The domestic spaces presented here are then sites of tension that symbolically enact the aggressive political and military campaign of westward expansion within an affective context. The focus on the home is a powerful symbol for this commentary, as it is an economic object imbued with affective expression. It is the material product of the emergent middle class, providing the means for exploring identity through the artifacts of culture, and in an era of homesteading, it serves as both the symbol and the instrument of national expansion.

19 citations

Book ChapterDOI
17 Mar 2011
TL;DR: The authors consider the role of style in the production of the translation and in its reception, and consider how a stylistically-aware translation might differ from one that takes less account of the nuances of style.
Abstract: How do style and translation interact? What is a stylistic approach to translation and what is a translational approach to stylistics? These are the central questions that this chapter attempts to answer. It begins by considering the location of stylistics with respect to both linguistics and to the study of literature, tracing its origins in early work of the Prague and Moscow Linguistic Circles, and setting its development alongside that of the discipline of translation studies. Both disciplines are concerned with similar linguistic issues: the relation of meaning to form; the choices the originator of a text makes; how these choices are reconstructed by the reader. For stylistics, we can gain interesting insights into the minute detail of a text, and the relations between its form and its meaning, by confronting the text with its translations. For translation studies, conversely, we can consider what a stylistic approach involves and what questions it raises: questions about the role of style in the production of the translation and in its reception. We must also ask in what sense stylistics can affect the practice of translation; one way of doing this is to consider how a stylistically-aware translation might differ from one that takes less account of the nuances of style. Future research might take this practical question further, paying more attention to the way a reader processes the stylistic detail of a translated text, and asking to what extent reading on the assumption that a translated text does not differ in any interesting way from its source text differs from a reading that takes full account of the fact that the translation has changed the text stylistically, and incorporated elements of the style of the translator.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that young people blogging about serious illness demonstrate the inherent intercommunicative potential of blogging and that these blogs may contribute rather unique experience-based knowledge and reflections about existential issues to other young blog readers, who may otherwise not get access to this aspect of life.
Abstract: In recent years, a growing number of young people who experience illness tend to blog about it. In this paper, we question whether and how illness blogs illustrate the intercommunicative aspect of blogging by bringing forth both the literary concept of the implied reader and the sociological concepts of empowerment and agency in the analysis. We argue that young people blogging about serious illness demonstrate the inherent intercommunicative potential of blogging. We also argue that youth blogging about serious illness may represent a fruitful strategy for ill young people to create meaning, stay front-stage in youth communities and build self-esteem and confidence out of chaos. Furthermore, we argue that these blogs may contribute rather unique experience-based knowledge and reflections about existential issues to other young blog readers, who may otherwise not get access to this aspect of life. Youth blogging about serious illness thereby reflects a patient group so far not very visible and through the genre youth stand out as more competent when it comes to illness and healthcare issues than what is often presumed.

19 citations