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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DOI•
27 Jun 2017TL;DR: This paper argued that the extreme brevity of microfiction results in stories that are similar, to a degree, to short stories, though experientially quite different; in the most thorough narratological treatment, William Nelles (2012) makes the case for a generic distinction between microfiction and the traditional short story.
Abstract: This article proposes that Iser’s work on gaps and blanks, as well as recent enactivist-inspired cognitive-narratological extensions of Iser’s work, can enlighten an under-theorized genre of experimental narrative, microfiction, typically identified as stories under 300 words (though often considerably shorter). The extreme brevity of microfiction results in stories that are similar, to a degree, to short stories, though experientially quite different; in the most thorough narratological treatment, William Nelles (2012) makes the case for a generic distinction between microfiction and the traditional short story. As I have argued elsewhere (Author 2016), borderline-narrative texts (microfiction included) make for oddly compelling reading experiences, largely due to the increased degree of reader participation necessary in narrativization. A main point of investigation here is as follows: while there is general agreement that Iser at least somewhat underestimates the extent to which narratives are perpetually fraught with gaps to be filled in by readers, there is still arguably a noticeably greater gap-per-capita (in a manner of speaking) in microfiction set against higher-narrativity texts; readers need to do more, in other words, to narrativize the typical piece of microfiction. Further, the extreme brevity of microfiction potentially affords readers a uniquely full experience of perceptual presence over the course of the micro-story.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the rhetorical techniques employed in three Norwegian ads for meat and how they mediate meat production to consumers, arguing that these ads all present an image of meat producers as progressive and caring proponents of animal welfare.
Abstract:
In this article, our starting point is that people who are plagued by the so-called meat paradox must find ways of making meat consumption safe from the realities of meat production. They do this by way of various mechanisms of denial, which obfuscate contemporary industrial meat production. We focus on how advertisements become one notable vehicle of such denial, and select three examples for close reading. Focusing on the rhetorical techniques employed in three Norwegian ads for meat and how they mediate meat production to consumers, we argue that these ads all present an image of meat producers as progressive and caring proponents of animal welfare. This leads us to suggest that they exemplify a variant of greenwashing that we dub “welfare washing”—the main message of which is to keep calm and carry on consuming meat.
4 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: This article investigated communicational processes of text interaction between the so-called novela das oito (lit. eight o'clock soap opera) or the prime-time Brazilian soap opera and different groups of viewers, for the purposes of informing communication theory and critical literacy practices.
Abstract: This thesis investigated communicational processes of text interaction between the so called novela das oito (lit. eight o’clock soap opera) or the prime-time Brazilian soap opera – also known as telenovela or simply novela – and different groups of viewers, for the purposes of informing communication theory, on the one hand, and critical literacy practices, on the other. The investigated groups of viewers continually consumed this highly popular genre of serialised fiction, whilst also participating in online communities about novelas from a pioneering social network service called Orkut. Selected social theories of language and communication were used to investigate the primary text genre (i.e. the prime-time Brazilian telenovela) and the context where it originates, in relation the secondary communicational genres (i.e. selected Orkut communities about telenovelas) and the respective context where they emerged out of these intertextual interactions.
To conduct this investigation, specific notions of text and genre were established in terms of their affordances and limitations, as discussed in Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001) and in Kress (2003, 2010) with respect to textual modes of representation, and as developed in English (2011) with respect to genre itself. As such, novelas and online discussions about novelas were analysed here in terms of the specific ways in which genre afforded as well as it limited not only the design, the production and the distribution of both primary and secondary texts, but also their reception (i.e. consumption). For this, an adapted version of English’s analytical framework (ibid.) was developed and employed, with these multimodal texts and genres found to be oriented in specific terms with regard to their social aspects (contextually and discursively), on the one hand, and their material aspects (thematically and semiotically), on the other hand.
As a result, a detailed understanding was provided, not only in terms of the specific ways in which these popular texts and genres oriented interactions, but also in terms of the specific ways in which these interactions oriented these texts and genres in turn. As these crucial points were carefully laid out, this research was able to suggest that the secondary texts and genres arising in the form of spontaneous interactions with widely popular television programmes, such as novelas, appeared to demonstrate, in practical terms, their potential to foster critical literacy practices – defined here as the progressive ability to interact with and make sense of different texts and contexts, discourses and genres, and their representational modes used through the means of different media.
The research is therefore original at two levels. Firstly, by providing a detailed exploration of the prime-time Brazilian telenovela in relation to some dimensions of its reception – at the same time also seen as dimensions of (re)design and (re)production of secondary texts and genres from a multimodal social semiotic perspective – it offers a multidisciplinary approach through an attempt at combining Media and Communications with Applied Language Studies. It is in this sense that the extension and subsequent employment of a multimodal analytical framework inform and contribute to communication theory. Secondly, by considering the implications of this empirical study in terms of how we learn and improve our abilities to communicate more effectively for a multitude of purposes, this research promotes a wider notion of literacy in practical terms. This is also seen as representing an original contribution towards critical approaches to pedagogy in specific terms.
4 citations
Cites background from "The Implied Reader: Patterns of Com..."
...Despite the emergence of reader-response theorisations in the 1970s discussing the active role of readers (cf. Iser, 1974, 1978) and the influence of interpretive communities (cf. Fish, 1980), it is only with the substantial empirical work of reception studies and media studies through the 1980s…...
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11 Feb 2015
TL;DR: This paper applied discourse analysis to video games and found that discourse analysis for video games does not yet really exist, but could there be such a thing? If there was such a kind of field, what would it teach us about discourse analysis in video games?
Abstract: A field of discourse analysis applied to video games does not yet really exist.
But could there be such a thing? If there was such a thing, what would it
teach us about discourse analysis for language?
4 citations