Wolfgang Iser

The Phenomenology of Reading On the basis of Wolfgang Iser’s essay ‘The Reading Process: A Phenomenological approach’ BALU VIJAYARAGHAVAN, H-1441   The philosophical perspective and method called ‘phenomenology’ was established by the German thinker Edmund Husserl, who set out to analyse human consciousness. He tried to describe the concrete world experienced by individuals and proposed that consciousness is a unified unintentional act i.e. it is always directed to an object. In his view, one

evolves over time. Representation refers to the “essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members in a culture” (Hall 15). Theorists such as Augustine of Hippo, Jaques Lacan, Northrop Frye, Roland Barthes, and Wolfgang Iser all have diverging opinions on the topic of representation due to the evidently contrasting themes that they presented in each of their works. From the time of the third century up until the more recent twentieth century, each of the listed theorists

Yadav Dr. Nidhi Vats M.A. English (Final) Decoding Wolfgang Iser‟s Reading Process Theory through the Text of Mrs Dalloway and Bravely Fought the Queen In the 1960s, the new criticism theory in the American Literary arena focused on the reading of a literary text as an independent form and not to be studied in relation to any context. This gave birth to another theory that began majorly in 1960s and 1970s known as reader response criticism, which also tried to do away with the author‟s role

Langston Hughes' "On the Road" In Langston Hughes, "On the Road" the Sargeant is a homeless Black man that is desperate for food and shelter. In his desperation, Sargeant goes to the church to refuge, but there is no one at the Church to help him get refuge. Although Sargent is living in a time where the depression is in existence amongst all people, Black and White, he finds no one to help him. Sargent goes to the Church because the Church helps people. However, because Sargeant is Black and

(Iser, 9)This hypothesis emphatically propagates the phenomenological reader response theory to decipher the process that co-relates the literacy work “The Way to the Rainy Mountain” to help us in identifying the openness portrayed in the text and the extent of reader participation. As one continue through the work, Iser says that having modified and undergone a retrospective effect on what has gone before, the

valuable, if not the reader?   As Iser explains in "The Reading Process," readers situate themselves within their responses, in effect "awakening [the] responses within himself" (51). He further argues that "if a reader were given the whole story...his imagination would never enter the field," and yield nothing but "boredom" (51). To Iser, the life of the text depends on a reader's participation in formulating his own response. More importantly, Iser touts the "unwritten parts," (gaps and

Overview: People have always felt the urge to classify characters as heroes or villains, however today more writers and readers recognize that the morality of characters is not as clear-cut as pure good and evil, allowing characters to step out of the traditional label of hero and villain. Despite this fact, fans still feel the need to restrain a character’s morality into a defined box, whether it be anti-heroes (protagonists who have flaws), anti-villains (villains with heroic goals or virtues)

Reading of Rumpelstiltskin Do not abuse your power, do not lie, and above all else, do not be greedy. Like many within its genre, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s version of the fairy-tale Rumpelstiltskin, attempts to propagate strong moral lessons towards a youthful demographic. Many years ago, this concept held true to me, in which, with little contradiction, I was able to draw the three aforementioned conclusions from the classic fable. Recently, however, upon revisitation of the text, certain elements

According to Gerrig, participatory response is a process where readers encode the types of mental contents as they would encode them if they were the participants in the narrative world. Gerrig divides participatory response in the following seven categories, such as the emotional response, outcome preference, problem solving instructions, problem-solving assertions, self-projection, re-plotting and character evaluation. Immersion is a phase called by Victor Nell as “lost in a book” where reader’s

“It is through literature that we learn about life. Through literature we profit from the experiences of others, comparing them with our own.” - Bob Cameron The essay question: Using reader-response theory and the quote by Bob Cameron, discuss how effectively Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie, uses plot and story, character development, point of view, theme, and symbols to convey his mesage. Include your personal thoughts and views, as well as textual references, to support your opinions