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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.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examine the works of Peter Lamarque and Clare Birchall on matters of narrative and secrecy in narrativity and highlight the inadequacies in the binary of opacity and transparency, by drawing examples from memories of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1989).
Abstract: The torch of ember and its puzzling knowability are my exemplars, serving to open the binary of opacity and transparency in narrativity. I highlight inadequacies in the binary of opacity and transparency by examining the works of Peter Lamarque and Clare Birchall on matters of narrative and secrecy. I will try to see how one can think about opacity/transparency through the lenses of speculative realism and object-oriented philosophy. I do so by drawing examples from memories of the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1989) and explaining how the language of remembering becomes the realm of a tension between presence and absentia, between the unsaid within the said. I explore how memory-as-narrative and narrative-as-memory sustain the potentiality that eludes Orwellian newspeak.

4 citations


Cites background from "The Implied Reader: Patterns of Com..."

  • ...He misses “the act of reading” (Iser, 1974) by attempting to find everything as it has been brought “[in]to the text” (Lamarque, 2014, p. 12)....

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  • ...He misses “the act of reading” (Iser, 1974) by attempting to find everything as it has been brought “[in]to the text” (Lamarque, 2014, p....

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  • ...The new background brings to light new aspects of what we had committed to memory” (Iser, 1974, p. 278)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
Doro Wiese1
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of two stylistic devices used in a graphic novel and a film, both entitled Blue is the Warmest Color, are discussed and compared with French film-makers.
Abstract: This essay discusses the effects of two stylistic devices used in a graphic novel and a film, both entitled Blue is the Warmest Color. In the case of the graphic novel, written by the French comic-book writer Julie Maroh, her use of the colour blue will be focused upon. Since large parts of the graphic novel are drawn in sepia tones, certain blue items are highlighted and stand out. This highlighting will be analysed by connecting it to insights established by the French philosopher Luce Irigaray. Irigaray links the use of colour in painting – literally and metaphorically understood as a way to create space and temporality – to the establishment of a singular and subjective perspective. Since the graphic novel Blue is the Warmest Color is simultaneously a romance, a coming-of-age story, and a coming out story, Irigaray’s call for a unique perspective is connected to Maroh’s aim to make lesbian desire available as a choice. Maroh’s use of colour will subsequently be contrasted with French film-director Abd...

4 citations


Cites background from "The Implied Reader: Patterns of Com..."

  • ...…distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. and narratologically represented can greatly affect reader response (see Bal 1997; Iser 1974, 1978; Mayne 1993; Silverman 1983, 1996; Wiese 2014)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article proposed a novel approach to the incorporation of a reader into a non-fiction text by using presented discourse (speech and thoughts assigned to the reader) to shape a reader-character, who represents a singular individual (as opposed to a generalized audience) with whom a reader can relate.
Abstract: Abstract I propose that the fictionalized reader as observed in popular science represents a novel approach to the incorporation of a reader into a non-fiction text. The traditional approach relies on “the reader-in-the-text” – an entity that covertly represents a generalized real reader through author’s voice using evaluation, modalization, concession, and mood among other mechanisms. The findings are based on a comparative analysis of a corpus of 193 occurrences of presented discourse of scientists (extracted from 100 narratives of discovery) and 73 occurrences of presented discourse attributed to the reader (observed outside the narratives). The analysis shows that the fictionalized reader uses presented discourse (speech and thoughts assigned to the reader) to shape a reader-character, who represents a singular individual (as opposed to a generalized audience) with whom a reader can relate. The need for a more concrete reader arises in thought experiments commonly used as explanatory devices in popular science. The fictionalized reader helps popular science authors explain scientific concepts in more engaging terms and contributes to a more interactive and inclusive model of popularization.

4 citations

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: Sue Bridehead, along with other characters in and some readers of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, finds something about Arabella irresistibly attractive, even though both Sue and the readers have every reason to dislike Jude's coarse, selfish, troublesome wife as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Sue Bridehead, along with other characters in and some readers of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, finds something about Arabella irresistibly attractive, even though both Sue and the readers have every reason to dislike Jude's coarse, selfish, troublesome wife. Arabella is responsible for much of Jude's and Sue's troubles, preventing their marriage multiple times and interrupting their lives repeatedly. She is crass and lewd and has no sympathy whatsoever for Jude's higher goals and ambitions; as Jude puts it, there is "something in her quite antipathetic to that side of him which had been occupied with literary study and the magnificent Christminster dream" (84). Readers are invited by Jude, Sue, and Hardy himself to resent Arabella's disruptions and unruly presence. Why might a reader resist this invitation to condemn Arabella? What could readers possibly find attractive about Arabella?

4 citations