Poststructural analysis of the role of reader Cover Image

Poststrukturalističke analize uloge čitatelja
Poststructural analysis of the role of reader

Author(s): Nenad Rizvanović
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Филозофски факултет, Универзитет у Приштини
Keywords: poststructuralism; implicit reader; ideal reader; Wolfgang Iser; Jonathan Culler; Umberto Eco

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses how post-structuralist theory deals with the concept of the reader's aesthetic role in the process of reading literature. The relationship between authors, texts, and readers is regarded as the key-point of theoretical analysis among many relevant scholars and literary theorists (Umberto Eco, Wolfgang Iser, Jonathan Culler, Peter Rabinowitz, Stanley Fish), who have all contributed to our understanding of this topic by introducing fundamental concepts such as 'the implied reader', 'the ideal reader', 'the informed reader' or 'the authorial reader'. While formalism and structuralism have considered the reader to be an abstract, ahistorical figure, without any relevant share in the establishment of meaning in any given literary work, post-structuralism discusses the role of the reader in the act of reading not only as the crucial factor in the process of aesthetic experience but also as the essential condition for generating meaning as such.

  • Issue Year: 49/2019
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 51-65
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Croatian