The Implied Reader : Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett

Iser, Wolfgang

ISBN 10: 080181569X / ISBN 13: 9780801815690

Published by Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (1974), Baltimore, 1974

About this Item

24x16cm, xiv,303 pp Contents: Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress: the doctrine of predestination and the shaping of the novel -- The Role of the reader in Fielding s Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones -- The Generic control of the esthetic response : an examination of Smollett s Humphry Clinker -- Fiction- The Filter of history : a study of Sir. Walter Scott s Waverley -- The Reader as a component part of the realistic novel : esthetic efects in Thackeray s Vanity Fair-- The Self-communication of subjectivity in autobiographical fiction. W.M. Thackeray : Henry Esmond -- Perception, temporality, and action as modes of subjectivity. W. Faulkner : The Sound and the fury -- The Unpredictability of subjectivity. I. Compton-Burnett : a Heritage and its history -- Subjectivity as the autogenous cancellation of its own manifesstations. S. Beckett : Molloy, Malone dies, the unnamable; Doing things in style : an interpretation of "The Oxen of the sun" in James Joyce s Ulysses -- Patterns of communication in Joyce s Ulysses -- Myth and realtly -- Experiments in style -- The Function of the experiments in style -- Archetypes -- The Reader s quest and the formation of illusion -- Dialogue of the unspeakable : Ivy Comption Burnett : a heritage and its history -- When is the end not the end? The Idea of fiction in Beckett -- The Reading process : a phenomenological approach. Minor wear. Name rubberstamped on reverse of title-page. VG.

Seller Inventory # 012001

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Implied Reader : Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (1974), Baltimore
• Publication Date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 080181569X
• ISBN 13: 9780801815690
• Binding: orig. cloth
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism

About this title

Synopsis

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.

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)