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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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TL;DR: The sonic logo for McDonald's i’m lovin' it campaign has been widely distributed and highly praised, but little is known about the actual characteristics and meaning potentials of this particular logo.
Abstract: While the sonic logo for McDonald’s i’m lovin’ it campaign has been widely distributed and highly praised, little is known about the actual characteristics and meaning potentials of this particular...
2 citations
Cites background from "The Implied Reader: Patterns of Com..."
...The slogan thus embodies a relatively open text that includes suggestive ‘empty places’ (Iser, 1974, p. 106) that are left open for readers to interpret and ‘fill in’....
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TL;DR: The Life and Journal of the Rev. Henry Alline has been compared to such celebrated spiritual autobiographies as John Bunyan's Grace Abounding and Jonathan Edwards's Personal Narrative as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Life and Journal of the Rev. Mr. Henry Alline has been compared to such celebrated spiritual autobiographies as John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding and Jonathan Edwards’s Personal Narrative, yet ther...
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2 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the scene investigates the phenomenology of novel reading, the nature of readerly subjectivity, and the poetics of the classic realist novel, all in ways that depart from other canonical literary depictions of reading, from empathic identiication to romantic self-aestheticization.
Abstract: What does it mean to be a reader of a novel? he famous scene of Anna Karenina reading on the train takes up this question. Whereas Tolstoy's scene is traditionally viewed as yet another example of the pleasures and dangers of novel reading, from empathic identiication to romantic self-aestheticization, I argue that the scene investigates the phenomenology of novel reading, the nature of readerly subjectivity, and the poetics of the classic realist novel—all in ways that depart from other canonical literary depictions of novel reading. Bringing together the poetics of the realist novel with complex issues of selfknowledge and deliberation, the scene reveals a new form of readerly subjectivity that entails the imagined nonexistence of the empirical reader. Drawing on Bakhtin, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and others, I show the implications of this form of readerly subjectivity for not only an original interpretation of Tolstoy's much-read scene but also our understanding of novel reading.
2 citations
22 Mar 2018
2 citations