Wolfgang Iser

This thesis explores the ethical impact of literary narrative fictions on the reader. It does so by focusing mainly on the reading experience since one of the main claims of the thesis is that literary narrative fictions are co-products of the author and the reader. In that sense the aforementioned impact cannot be understood without taking into account the creative acts of the reader. The exploration is carried out by focusing on three scholars whose investigations on the problem of literary experience can be read as complementary works.In the first chapter I descriptively lay out Roman Ingarden’s investigation on the ontological and structural character of the literary work of art along with his phenomenological inquiry into the cognition of this work. By examining his basic claims about the nature of the literary work ofart and its cognition, I discuss the ontological incompleteness of these works which necessitates the active role of the reader in giving the work its final shape. In the second chapter I focus upon Wolfgang Iser’s reader-response theory.  Iser’s theory goes parallel to Ingarden’s in the sense that they both accept the openness of the work to the creative acts of the reader. Iser, however by his notions of depragmatization, negation and negativity suggest us a two-way traffic between the fictional work and the reader. Through the reading proses, by virtue of the negations and de-pragmatizations, the work invites the reader to reflect on the familiar norms it represents and suggest to her a new model to understand the real world. In this way, while giving ashape to the work, the reader is also shaped by it.The third chapter addresses the phenomenological hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. By exploring his notion of “narrative identity” as a mediator between the ipseand idemidentities, my aim is to show the influence of the literary fictional narratives in understanding the identity of the individual subject as a temporal, historical, and intersubjective being. It is only through this understanding that we can construe the subject in her ethical identity. I will also focus on Ricoeur’s notions of “emplotment,” and “threefold mimesis,” which implies the active role of the reader in realizing the literary narrative fiction, so that I can reveal how fictional narratives enhance the notion of narrative identity.

Resumo Este artigo propõe definir um modelo de texto para o texto religioso, em geral, e para o texto bíblico, em especial, por meio de referenciais da semiótica da cultura, dos estudos discursivos e da estética da recepção. Três conceitos se articulam de forma dinâmica: texto, contexto e leitor. A) O texto religioso é estruturalmente complexo, tributário da densidade narrativa do mito e da hiperconectividade da metáfora. B) Textos religiosos são lidos e recriados em redes textuais na história, seus contextos. C) Por fim, o leitor acessa os textos criativamente, atualizando suas possibilidades de sentido. Desta forma propomos um modelo articulado de texto que enfatiza sua polissemia e virtualidade, sua historicidade radical e o papel ativo do leitor. Palavras-chave: texto, contexto, leitor, texto religioso, literatura bíblica.
Abstract This article proposes to define a textual model for the understanding of the religious text, in general, and of the biblical texts, in particular, by means of references from the semiotics of culture, of the discoursive studies and the aesthetics of reception. Three conceptions articulate themselves in a dynamic way: text, context, and reader. A) The texts are considered as structurally complex, narratively dense as the myth, and hiper-connective as the metaphor. B) Religious texts are read and recreated in textual webs in history, their contexts. C) Finally, the reader accesses the text creatively, activating their meaning possibilities. So, we propose an articulated model of text that emphasizes its polysemy and virtuality, its radical historicity, and the active role of the reader.

Following Wolfgang Iser’s studies, literary criticism could no longer avoid a confrontation with the phenomenology of the act of reading. This has led the analysis of a literary text towards new researches regarding the reader’s response theory . In particular, it is impossible to define the field of literary investigation, its coordinates and characteristics, without considering the anthropological dimention which defines the epistemological nature of literature itself. We propose in this study a new approach that we call “neurohermeneutic approach”. Unlike an analytical or descriptive approach, the neurohermeneutic approach investigates broth the relations that the reader’s mind establishes with the text figurations and how these figurations stimulates the reader’s mind in that inexhaustible, always new and surprising act of the reading. A partire dagli studi di Wolfgang Iser, la riflessione critica non ha piu potuto evitare il confronto con la fenomenologia dell’atto della lettur...

"Carter's music poses struggles of opposition, for instance in timbre (Double Concerto), space (String Quartet No. 3) or pulse (String Quartet No. 5). His preference for the all-interval tetrachords, 4–Z15 [0, 1, 4, 6] and 4–Z29 [0, 1, 3, 7], is also well known. From these facets of Carter's music, I develop a narrative interpretation of his Petrarch sonnet–inspired solo flute piece, Scrivo in Vento (1991). Specifically, I forge narrative pathways by imagining the two tetrachords as active agents opposed in competition. Previous Scrivo analyses (Capuzzo 2002; Childs 2006) stress continuity by revealing Q-transforms and common-note voice leading between the tetrachords. While acknowledging such features, my analysis emphasises oppositional struggle by tracing the tetrachords as separate entities which cooperate and conflict as they manoeuvre to outdo each other.

The analysis advances three theses: (1) it guides listening to and reading Scrivo in a way which resonates with Carter's concern for the aesthetics of oppositional struggle, his choice of a sonnet as inspiration and his affinity for all-interval tetrachords; (2) it shows that music-analytical detail can be organised into dramatic narratives by (a) projecting dramatic roles onto categories asserted by a formal theory and (b) treating the formal theory's relations metaphorically as actions performed by each role as the musical work unfolds; and (3) it shows how detailed pc-set analysis can support a Heraclitean view of music: a flux of opposing forces seeking and resisting unity."

This chapter of my book "Veiled Presence" explores how Lotto's images of the clothed body communicate a novel sense of being-in-the-world. In Lotto's paintings dress or drapery is possessed in both senses of the word: it proclaims ownership, but it is also stirred by strange animation. The intimate textiles of domestic life, including veils, kerchiefs and towels energize Lotto's smaller religious paintings, while his larger ones are enlivened by the movement of ritual drapes, such as vestments, altar cloths and curtains.  Such cloths function at times as "transitional objects", mediating between the real, the fictive and the imaginary.  Clothes disguise and drapery may hide or withold, as when a cloth is laid over a mirror.  It signals both remembering and forgetting.

Contemporary critic Wolfgang Iser conveys the idea that meaning does not reside in the
text, but in the mind of the reader. The text functions are only as a canvas onto which the reader
projects whatever his or her reactions may be. The text is a cause of different thoughts but does
not provide a reason for one interpretation rather than another.

https://sbps.spanport.ucsb.edu/volume/5

Resumo: Neste trabalho, buscaremos analisar como se dá a construção do espaço no romance O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis, de José Saramago, por meio da trajetória e perspectiva do protagonista, em que se evidencia o entrelaçamento de referências literárias e históricas. Esse entrecruzar, que produz literariamente o espaço como um palimpsesto, pode ser percebido na relação que o protagonista Ricardo Reis estabelece com os monumentos, sobretudo a Estátua de Camões. O monumento pode ser considerado como um lugar de memória (Nora, 1993), reencenado na literatura a fim de mobilizar as redes de sentidos que se projetam a partir desse objeto, dentre os quais aqueles que o fazem participar de um discurso fundador, no caso, da tradição literária portuguesa. Partimos de Brandão (2013), para tratar sobre o espaço na literatura; de Pierre Nora (1993) e Robin (2016), para abordar as relações entre espaço e memória; de Corbos (2004) e Pesavento (2004), para a noção do espaço como palimpsesto. Palavras-chave: O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis, memória, monumento, espaço, palimpsesto. Abstract: In this article, we aim to analyze how space is built in the novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, by José Saramago, through the trajectory and perspective of the protagonist, in which is evidenced the interweaving of historical and literary references. This intertwining, which produces space, literarily, as a palimpsest, can be perceived in the relation that the protagonist,

Stephen Crane's short stories transcend the mere depiction of the world as conceived by realism and naturalism. His narratives can be regarded as experiments in perception where the author explores the nature of reality as a human construct. Crane's main concern does not rest on moral assumptions, rather on the frustrating process that makes human beings generate meaning from an indifferent nature. This process is portrayed by exposing the characters to situations that push them to their limits -situations in which human ability to perceive is put to the test, only to be finally undermined.

"The Open Boat" and "The Blue Hotel" are exemplary in illustrating the multifarious and deceptive nature of reality. In the former, an ironic kind of self¬awareness is achieved by the correspondent's acceptance of human limitations and the absurdity of his condition. In the latter, the use of the wrong code of behavior leads to an endless series of misunderstandings and to the subsequent murder of the Swede. Both stories share Crane's characteristic use of ambiguity that lets the reader have a say in the story.

Toni Morrison, one of the most well-known American writers of the literary world, has been both appreciated and criticized from various viewpoints as most writers are. Her works are triumphs of language and imagination, and are considered mastered classics of modernism. Furthermore, her works are studied for their depiction of sensitive issues such as racism, slavery, sexuality, human drives, relationships, and mental trauma. However, fewer studies have analyzed her text from a reader-response perspective. Hence, this paper evaluates the plots, scenes, and themes of her texts using a reader-response approach. I will analyze three texts by Morrison using different arguments made by Iser. Further, I will study the dynamics of interpretation considering the aspects of race, class, and sex. Lastly, I will move toward the conclusion discussing Stanley Fish’s concept of interpretive communities.

There are many models of reading and many theoretical understandings.
Increasingly these different approaches are engaging one another.
In 1988 when Theories of Reading in Dialogue: An Interdisciplinary
Study was first published that was less the case. Still, though, there
is much to be gained from the cross-fertilization of those approaches
more inclined to psychological and cognitive frameworks with the
more philosophical and/or literary studies. Educators, policymakers,
researchers, academics, and the general public all have much to gain.
Theories of Reading in Dialogue sets up such an interchange, first
by introducing representatives of these various disciplines, then by
engaging key themes at the heart of reading. Meaning, comprehension,
critique and play are each explored before practical lessons are gleaned
and applied to the practice of literacy instruction.

Az eseményfogalom megragadásának nehézségéből következtetően alapvető, már evidenciának tekintett elbeszéléselméleti és hermeneutikai összefüggések újragondolására vállalkozunk.
E vállalkozás pedig az eseményhez mint epizódfluktuációhoz: a narráció olyan felfogásához vezet majd végül, amely további alapviszonyok, leginkább az idő és a jel viszonyának átértékelése előtt nyithat utat, mert az eseményfogalom elbeszéléselméleti meghatározhatóságának vizsgálata közben feltűnik a jelölő és jelölt viszonyának újraértelmezési lehetősége, amelynek nyomán a jel mint olyan sajátosan kettős természete mutatkozik meg.

This book attempts to reconsider fundamental narrative theoretical and hermeneutical correspondances by drawing conclusions from the difficulty of capturing the event concept. This attempt finally leads to such a concept which interprets the event as episode fluctuation. This could pave the way for further basic correspondences, especially for the reinterpretation of the correlation of the time and the sign. Namely, during the course of the theoretical definability of the event concept the reinterpretation chance of the correlation of the signified and the signifier rises. As a result of this the peculiar dual character of the sign as such reveals itself.

Reader-response theory privileges a reader's interpretation of a text over authorial intentions behind writing the text. This paper is an attempt to apply the reader-response theory to Emily Dickinson's poem, 'This is My Letter to the World.' The study has been performed by administering questionnaires and analysing readers' responses to them. Results show that readers respond differently to the text. They analyse by looking at the poem's themes, its technical aspects, its historical information, poet's style and even associate it with personal experiences.

Following Roland Barthes’ definition, this paper argues that "Lolita" is a “text of bliss”, namely a text that discomforts the reader, bringing to a crisis his/her relation with language. At the same time, it is based on Wolfgang Iser’s notion of the text as an event, designating the reader’s continual oscillation between involvement and observation. The research objective is to find out how "Lolita" is supposed to be read by Nabokov’s “good reader”: what the given instructions are and how the reader should interact with them. The development of the Humbert – Lolita relationship in the novel in contrast to its transformation in the screenplay is of particular interest because it seems to figure the interaction between author/text and reader. The findings uncover how aesthetic and sensual come together to entangle the reader in the text, and thus art is demonstrated as a clash and aesthetic bliss at the same time.

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Sincere thanks for the thoughtful comments and suggestions to the members of the Slavic Kruzhok at UC Berkeley (esp. Chloë Kitzinger, Matt Kendall), where an earlier version of this paper was presented, to the working group in reception theories of the Humanities Seminar in Sofia (Bogdana Paskaleva, Chavdar Parushev), and to the two anonymous reviewers for the "Nabokov Studies"; as well as to Michelle Asbill for proofreading. My interest in this novel was first instigated by Rumyana Evtimova, and further curiosity was kept by my talks with Reneta Bozhankova. This publication might not have existed if Irina Paperno hadn't encouraged me to keep on writing in English. Gratefully acknowledging the Fulbright scholarship, which brought me to Berkeley in 2014, I am most obliged to Eric Naiman’s inspiring seminar on "Lolita" and his invaluable guidance.

This chapter, taken from my book "Playing Dystopia" describes a general theory of aesthetic response for video game narratives. It discusses in depth the concept of the implied player, a theoretical construct that describes the affordance and appeal structure of a game. The implied player is thereby viewed as a system of perspectives, the most prominent of which are: 1) sensorial 2) world 3) plot and 4) system perspective.

To formulate a theory of aesthetic response for VGNs (and games in general) I primarily make use of Kendall Walton's theory on the reception of representational art and Wolfgang Iser's concept of the implied reader, while regarding these in the context of previous work in game studies.

I repost this chapter, for I think it stands on its own as a paper on the implied player, both within and without the context of dystopian games.

In most comics, the art and the text – the visual and the verbal channels – seem to be telling the same story. But, to be technical narratologically, it is actually the same fabula, not the same story which requires uniform perspective. That is, both art and text present events from the same general plot but not necessarily at the same time, in the same order, or from the same viewpoint. The captions may be disclosing a character’s inner monologue, for instance, while the panels show that character leaping to safety. Or, as a reverse example, word balloons could be vocalizing a fight between two off-panel parents while the panel focalizes on a tearful child trying to sleep. It is the dreadfully boring and narrow comic that has the visual and verbal reflect exactly the same thing in each and every panel. There would be no point and, ultimately, no reason for doing this narrative in comic form. Since the visual and the verbal narratives may be telling different parts of the same fabula simultaneously, it stands to reason that there may also be two different narrators for a given panel as well. This distinction becomes particularly important when it is taken advantage of by a savvy creator (e.g., Art Spiegelman in MAUS, Alan Moore in Watchmen, Chris Ware in ACME Novelty Library) to create an intentional schism between the two narratives; that is, the visual and verbal narratives may actually be spinning different yarns. This narrative polyphony, though not unique to comics, affects the hermeneutic model for the medium to such a degree that a revised tetrahedral hybrid of Wolfgang Iser, J. Espen Aarseth, and Scott McCloud’s theories bears implementation

Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare‟s comedies, first performed in 1604 and then published in the first folio of 1623. Although it is classified as one of the comedies, it is also one of the three controversial plays –alongside All’s Well that Ends Well and Troilus and Cressida. These works by Shakespeare are labeled as “problem plays”. They are problematic, because they do not obey the conventions of their genre and certain deviations in their plots and characterization makes them to stand out among all the rest of Shakespeare‟s work.
This essay is an effort to show how Measure for Measure is problematic based on the ideas of the German theorist, Wolfgang Iser. Iser was a follower of Gadamer‟s phenomenology and one of the exponents of the reader-response movement. This movement was a reaction to the prevalent formalism and New Criticism of 1950s and 1960s which rejected the role of the reader in the process of interpretation in the name of “affective fallacy” and believed in the totality of the text as a whole. Iser claimed that meaning is a result of the cooperation between the text and reader; no text can boast of any kind of meaning unless it comes in contact with a knowing subject and at the same time, this makes the text‟s meaning “inexhaustible”, because the act of interpreting is unique for each reader.

En su relato más breve, "Continuidad de los parques," Cortázar elabora una historia circular donde los planos de la ficción y la realidad se superponen de modo inquietante. La intrusión de uno de los personajes dentro del ámbito de un lector intradiegético desencadena la ruptura de los marcos estructurales del cuento. El resultado es una estructura de cajas chinas en la que autor, lector y personajes parecen intercambiar sus papeles. El asesinato final del lector imaginario encierra un potencial alegórico que sólo cobra sentido a la luz de la teoría literaria que Cortázar discute con mayor profundidad en sus novelas y ensayos.

El presente trabajo propone una lectura metafórica de "Continuidad de los parques," interpretando el relato como una concisa alegoría del acto de leer. Tras un repaso al papel del lector en la obra de Cortázar y sus analogías con determinados conceptos del postestmcturalismo (Roland Barthes) y la fenomenología hermenéutica (Wolfgang Iser), pasaré a comentar la dimensión simbólica de los dos escenarios contrapuestos en el texto: el mundo cerrado y alienante del lector en su estudio y el espacio de la transgresión representado por los amantes reunidos en el bosque. Para ello tomo como punto de partida dos de los capítulos menos "prescindibles" de Rayuela (el 79 y el 99). Doy por entendido que semejante interpretación pretende desvelar (desarmar) tan sólo uno de los múltiples niveles de sentido presentes en el texto. De hecho, "Continuidad de los parques," se manifiesta, en útimo término, como paradigma de la "obra abierta" susceptible de múltiples lecturas.'

"ABSTRACT:
    This study assumes the subject's pursuit of meaning is generally incapacitating and should be suspended. It aims to demonstrate how such a suspension is theoretically accomplished by utilizing Lacan's formulae of sexuation integrated with his work in discourse theory and topology.
    Part I places this study into context by examining scholarship from the established fields of hermeneutics, phenomenology, (post)structuralism, aesthetic theory and psychoanalysis in order to extract out their respective theory of meaning. These theories reveal that an historical struggle with meaning has been underway since the Reformation and reaches near crisis proportions in the 20th century. On the one hand this crisis is mollified by the rise of Heideggerian-Gadamerian hermeneutical phenomenology which questions traditional epistemological approaches to the text using a new ontological conceptualization of meaning and a conscious rejection of methodology. On the other hand this crisis is exacerbated when the ubiquitous nature of meaning is itself challenged by (post)structuralism's discovery of the signifier which inscribes a limit to meaning, and by the domains of sense and nonsense newly opened up by aesthetic theory. These historical developments culminate in the field of psychoanalysis which most consequentially delimits a cause of meaning said to be closely linked to the core of subjectivity.
    Part II extends these findings by rigorously constructing out of the Lacanian sexuated formulae a decidedly non-hermeneutical phenomenological approach useful in demonstrating the sexual nature of meaning. Explicated in their static state by way of an account of their original derivation from the Aristotelian logical square, it is argued that these four formulae are relevant to basic concerns of textual theory inclusive of the hermeneutical circle of meaning. These formulae are then set into motion by integrating them with Lacan's four discourses to demonstrate the breakdown of meaning. Finally, the cuts and sutures of two-dimensional space that is topology as set down in L'étourdit are performed to confirm how the very field of meaning is ultimately suspended from a nonsensical singular point known in Lacanian psychoanalysis as objet a. The contention is that by occupying this point the subject frees himself from the debilitating grip of meaning."

Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in English Literature in 2017 for “in [his] novels of great emotional force, [he] has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” Never Let Me Go (2004) remains his best love story. This dystopian science fiction depicts a world where reproductive cloning has been legalized in order to harvest organs. Human clones are artificially engendered in laboratories only to be taken apart bit by bit when their organs are required to replace the original. The life of the cloned individual is caught in a quagmire of deprivations and illusions. From the very moment of their conception they are waiting to be reaped. In such a critical juncture, where does humanity find hope if not in love? The clones prove to be an outstanding “metaphor for the general human condition.” The only difference is that their life is more to the point. Ishiguro dexterously deals with an excellent mnemotechnique manipulating the reader’s anticipations and engagement with the work of fiction. The novel with a romanticized title changes into the memoir of a clone as the reader proceeds. Ishiguro misleads the reader to engage with the various prominent nodes instead of consciously identifying with the clones as normal human beings. This paper provides a detailed study of the novel with potential excerpts dished out for the readers to observe the subtleties of the fish-net technique of reader’s memory manipulation As the climax arrives, the apparent detachment from the characters metamorphoses into the reader experiencing a brilliantly crafted loves story.

Die hier vorgelegte Arbeit versucht im Wesentlichen zwei Forschungs-desiderate aufzuarbeiten und Asymmetrien in der bisherigen Auseinander-setzung mit diesen Bereichen auszugleichen:
- Es lässt sich ein markanter Kontrast beobachten zwischen (a) den Be-mühungen, Rezeptionsforschung und -theorie als wissenschaftlichen Ansatz theoretisch zu fundieren, und (b) der Situation, dass bis heute kein grundsätzlicher Versuch unternommen wurde, die aus diesen Po-sitionen (und nahezu allen anderen literaturtheoretischen Positionen) hervorgehenden Lesermodelle systematisch zu erfassen und hinsicht-lich Vergleichbarkeit herstellender Kategorien in Relation zueinander zu setzen.
- Darüber hinaus zeigt sich ein nicht geringeres Ungleichgewicht zwi-schen (a) dem Aufwand, mit dem die Editionsphilologie eine metho-disch standardisierte oder zumindest explizit reflektierte Sicherung von Primärtexten als Vorbereitung der Textinterpretation betreibt, und (b) der philologischen und editionsphilologischen Aufmerksam-keit, die Sekundärtexten eingeräumt wird, wenn es sich um einen ebensolchen Umgang mit ihnen handelt.
Während im Kernbereich dieser Dissertation Lesermodelle verglichen und hinsichtlich ihrer Funktionalisierbarkeit für eine historisierende Literatur-wissenschaft geprüft werden, formuliert der diesen Kern umschließende Teil der Arbeit eine theoretische Begründung und einen methodischen Entwurf der historisierenden Rezeptionsanalyse selbst. Diese soll als sys-tematische Quellensichtung, -sicherung und -reflexion verstanden werden und Rezeptionszeugnisse realer Leser für hermeneutische, aber auch im weitesten Sinne empirische Ansätze der historisierend ausgerichteten Lite-raturwissenschaft vorbereiten und fruchtbar machen.

Los llamados “capítulos prescindibles” de Rayuela comunican abiertamente las ideas de Cortázar acerca de su teoría de la creación poética. A través de Morelli, Cortázar materializa una doble especulación narrativa.  Por un lado, se discute un proyecto literario de alcance global. Por otro, la novela reflexiona sobre sí misma. Dentro de tales reflexiones el papel del lector ocupa un lugar central. La escritura y la lectura son simultaneizadas y concebidas ambas como un mismo instrumento de posesión ontológica.  Pero tal y como dejan entrever determinados pasajes, la obra que comenta Morelli es Rayuela (o, al menos, una novela destinada a ser la preceptiva literaria de la imaginaria Rayuela).  La novela se convierte así en teoría y praxis de sí misma.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise déposé à l'Université de Bologne et à l'Université de Strasbourg en 2014 propose une analyse de L'œuvre au noir de Marguerite Yourcenar (1968) dans le cadre d'une étude théorique portant sur les modes de représentation de l'humanisme au XXe siècle.

Ce mémoire est tout d'abord constitué d'une étude étymologique portant sur les différents usages - souvent contradictoires - du terme "humanisme", essentiellement compris comme un modèle pédagogique (les "humanités") ou comme une philosophie de l'homme. Il réunit par la suite une généalogie de la critique heideggérienne de l'humanisme en divisant celle-ci en quatre phases (1929-1946 ; 1946-1966 ; 1966-1985 ; 1985-aujourd'hui), avant de distinguer trois axes permettant de définir cette notion selon les débats des historiens de la Renaissance, soit un axe identitaire, un axe pédagogique et un axe religieux.

Cette étude replace par la suite l'évolution de la pensée yourcenarienne depuis Les mémoires d'Hadrien (1951) jusqu'à Un homme obscur (1981) dans le contexte de ces débats autour de l'humanisme, en démontrant que celle-ci suit une trajectoire opposée à celle de la genèse de la critique heideggérienne. Cela me permet ensuite d'aborder, par l'entremise des théories de la réception et de la lecture de Wolfgang Iser, les problèmes liés à la représentation de ce concept dans un roman historique ayant pour toile de fond la Renaissance, dans un chapitre qui tente de mettre en lumière certains liens qui peuvent exister entre la production littéraire contemporaine et l'histoire des idées.

Ces réflexions m'incitent à me pencher davantage, dans la seconde partie de mon mémoire, sur les liens entre "texte" et "contexte", en m'intéressant tout d'abord aux enjeux linguistiques que représente l'écriture réputée "classique" de Marguerite Yourcenar, que j'oppose aux expérimentations langagières d'un collectif d'auteurs bolognais qui ont fait paraître leur premier roman, Q, en 1999 sous le nom de Luther Blissett. Je tente de démontrer, en confrontant les stratégies auctoriales déployées à travers ces textes, qu'ils peuvent constituer deux pôles de représentation opposés de l'humanisme dans un roman historique, selon une tradition "illusioniste" et "anti-illusioniste".

Pour finir, la dernière partie de ce mémoire constitue une analyse plus approfondie de la figure de Zénon dans L'œuvre au noir, en cherchant à comprendre dans quelle mesure ce personnage peut être lié à l'historiographie portant sur l'humanisme de la Renaissance.

What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to the 2014 Gaza War and Israel’s foreign policy?

Wrapped in the Flag of Israel Second Edition examines neoliberal bureaucracy in the Global South using feminist critical race theories. It interrogates the relationship between the State of Israel and its Mizrahi single mothers who are at the forefront of Mizrahi feminism. It also presents a model of bureaucracy as divine cosmology that preempts the agency of disenfranchised Mizrahim who are Israel’s demographic majority. Mizrahi protests fall flat when the Israel-Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. While most studies of neoliberal bureaucracy employ a Foucauldian or Marxian lens, this book illustrates how Israeli bureaucracy draws on a theological essence that fuses religion, gender, and race into the foundations of citizenship. It sets out to understand why Mizrahi mothers remain loyal to a state that injures them though its bureaucratic system.

The extensive Afterword to the Second Edition connects intra-Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel’s political right. In between came bloodletting between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed, but not only in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reform. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizrahi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel’s Mizrahi-Ashkenazi rift.

اختلفت آراء النقاد قديماً وحديثاً حول المقامات الهمذانية، وقيمتها الفنية، والدافع من وراء تأليف تلك المقامات، وعلاقتها بالظروف التاريخية والاجتماعية التي عاشها مؤلفها بديع الزمان الهمذاني. وقد ذهب فريق من هؤلاء النقاد مذهباً ربطوا فيه بين مقامات البديع والدرس التعليمي واعتبروا أن الهمذاني ألف مقاماته لتعليم تلاميذه أساليب العرب في كلامها. ويتناول البحث المقترح بالنقد والتحليل –في ضوء نظرية التلقي عند الفيلسوف الألماني فولفانج آيزر– هذا المذهب الذي يربط بين المقامات والدرس التعليمي ليثبت أن البديع لم يؤلف مقاماته لتلاميذه، وإنما يتمثل أحد أهم أهدافه من تأليف مقاماته في أن يصنف نصاً أدبياً يتواصل من خلاله مع المتلقين من كل طبقات مجتمعه، وليثبت –أعني البحث- أن القراءة المنتجة لمقامات الهمذاني هي تلك التي تتجاوز ظاهر النص بألفاظه ومحسناته البديعية لتبحث عن المعنى العميق في ما وراء تلك الزخارف والمحسنات اللفظية.

Per la combinazione delle diverse prospettive e per il fatto di presentare – all’interno di una cornice finzionale - una visione critica della scena storica e sociale del suo tempo, "Il Circolo Pickwick" risponde alle caratteristiche che Wolfgang Iser individua come fondamentali in un’opera letteraria di fiction. Questa relazione si propone di analizzare la vicenda del processo “Bardell contro Pickwick” all’interno de "Il Circolo Pickwick" traendo spunto dalle considerazioni sul romanzo formulate da Wolfgang Iser in "L’atto della lettura. Una teoria della risposta estetica".

The idea that a reader can empathize with fictional characters and be engrossed in the reading experience goes back at least to Chaucer’s dream vision poems of the 14th Century. Traditionally, though, we tend to associate this phenomenon with Victorian fiction, which, as empathy theorist Suzanne Keen has shown, was thought to immerse readers in an entrancing reading experience. Current criticism tends to lean on the assumption that Modernist novels, like those of Joyce, Woolf, Conrad, and Ford, eschew empathy and engrossment with their reliance on formal experimentation. However, I argue that Ford Madox Ford and Virginia Woolf revised the aesthetic theories of Walter Pater and Joseph Conrad, and forged a new relationship between reader and text. Far from emotionally barren fiction, Ford and Woolf create affective fiction: while Ford bewilders us with the impossibility of engrossment or reader-character identification, Woolf’s phenomenology makes the reader “know” characters like never before. Readerly empathy and engrossment did not stop with Modernism, it just looked a little different.

Paper in French & English / Article en anglais et français
Abstract en français ci-dessous

The possibility and interest of narration in abstract art has long been questioned. Where Modernism considered that narration was foreign to visual art and should thus be avoided, narratology has often considered that it was impossible to narrate with single images, let alone abstract ones. Developing an idea by David Hume, I start by opposing Media Essentialism, the thesis that each medium has an essence that should be exemplified by any use of the medium. However, I also show a problem with W. J. T. Mitchell's criticism of Modernist arguments about narrative: Mitchell fails to distinguish stories told in works of art from stories told about them.
I argue that narration should be understood as a phenomenon located in reception rather than production. This is a position that has long been recognized by reception theory (see Umberto Eco& Wolfgang Iser) and cognitive narratology. If we want to know if there is narrative in abstract art, the question we must ask then is if abstract works of art can systematically convey narratives. I try to show that this is indeed the case.
Radicalizing a reception-based definition of narrativity, we can say that any representation that systematically conveys a story should be considered a narrative and that any representation that is systematically understood as narrating something should be considered to have at least some degree of narrativity. In my paper, I demonstrate that the latter is the case with at least some abstract works of art. I more specifically argue that abstract single paintings can have narrativity and that abstract films can be narratives, conveying full-blown stories. I also provide criteria to distinguish abstract works of art that have narrativity from others that don't.

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La possibilité et l'intérêt de la narration dans l'art abstrait font question depuis longtemps. Là où le Modernisme a considéré que la narration éloignait l'art visuel de sa nature propre et considérait l'abstraction comme un moyen pour l'éviter, la narratologie a souvent considérée qu'il était impossible de raconter une histoires en une image et ce d'autant plus si l'image était abstraite. Cependant, si on comprend la narration comme un phénomène de réception plutôt que de production, comme l'a fait la théorie de la réception depuis Umberto Eco et Wolfgang Iser et le défend la théorie cognitive de la narration, la question qui se pose est celle de savoir si des oeuvres abstraites peuvent être reçues de manière récurrente et systématique comme narratives. Si cela était le cas, elles pourraient alors être jugées comme narratives. Dans mon article, je démontre que cela est le case. Je ne vais pas jusqu'à défendre qu'une image unique abstraite peut être un récit, mais je soutiens tout de même qu'il y a des films abstraits qui sont des récits et je discute de nombreux cas de réception narrative d'images abstraites, ce qui me mène à reconnaître la narrativité de certaines oeuvres d'art abstraites. Je donne également quelques indications sur les critères pour les distinguer d'oeuvres abstraites non-narratives.

This is a study on the notion of literary image. It focuses on several writers and poets (T. S. Eliot, Chavdar Mutafov, Hagiwara Sakutaro, James Joyce, Atanas Dalchev) and discusses various literary theorists such as Wolfgang Iser, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Alexander Potebnja, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Lacan, Maurice Blanchot.

Although Wolfgang Iser is one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, there is no authoritative study about his oeuvre. The present work remedies that problem by analysing Iser’s German and English writings in detail. Apart from being the first comprehensive account of his work, this study also modifies the established view of Iser’s theory. In contrast to the idea that his only contribution to literary studies is the reception theory of the 1970s, this account demonstrates the importance of Iser’s work on history and anthropology from the 1950s and 1990s. Instead of exclusively focusing on familiar terms such as ‘indeterminacy’, this analysis also discusses Iser’s view of modernity, fiction and culture. As this discussion shows, his writings develop a consistent theory of the novel and the way in which it allows its readers to articulate new views of reality. To situate this theory, Iser’s institutional and intellectual background is described as well, paying special attention to the Poetik und Hermeneutik-circle and thinkers like Blumenberg and Kermode. The continued relevance of his theory is demonstrated via comparisons with recent research on the novel and memory as well as examples from contemporary novelists like Juli Zeh and Hilary Mantel.

In this paper I deal with the concept of "literary anthropology", reconstructing its history from the "anthropological turn" in literature in the Eighties (Poyatos; Iser) both in the Anglo-American and in the German context. In the last section, I put forward a proposal to widen the anthropological approach to literature in an anthropopoietic sense.

«Η λογοτεχνία είναι σημαντικός δίαυλος γνώσης και επικοινωνίας με τον κόσμο, νοηματοδότησης του παρόντος και κατανόησης του παρελθόντος» (Καλογήρου & Πάτσιου 2013). Γι’ αυτόν ακριβώς τον λόγο, η προσπάθεια των εκπαιδευτικών να κεντρίσουν και να καλλιεργήσουν το ενδιαφέρον των μαθητών δεν είναι μια εύκολη διαδικασία. Σε αυτήν την προσπάθεια προσέγγισης, μείζονα ρόλο παίζουν η πλειονότητα των λογοτεχνικών θεωριών.
Μια από αυτές τις λογοτεχνικές αναγνωστικές θεωρίες (θεωρίες της πρόσληψης) είναι αυτή του Wolfgang Iser. Για τον Iser, «το νόημα […]είναι ένα γεγονός κατασκευής που συμβαίνει κάπου μεταξύ του κειμένου και του αναγνώστη». Ο Iser πίστευε πως τα μηνύματα μεταδίδονταν προς δυο κατευθύνσεις με την έννοια πως ο αναγνώστης το προσλαμβάνει «συνθέτοντάς το» (Iser, 2000).
Η συγκεκριμένη αναγνωστική θεωρία του Iser αποτελεί το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο  της παρούσης εργασίας, στη βάση της οποίας θα γίνει διδακτική εφαρμογή, οργανωμένη και στοχοθετημένη από τον γράφοντα ιστορικό και φιλόλογο. Η αξιοποίηση της επονομαζόμενης φαινομενολογικής θεωρίας μπορεί να βοηθήσει τους μαθητές να ασκηθούν στο επιδιωκόμενο κριτικό γραμματισμό, μέσω του οποίου οι μπορούν να εκφράσουν απόψεις και να αντικρούσουν κοινώς αποδεκτές θεωρίες και ιδεολογίες. Εξάλλου, όπως διατύπωσαν οι Χατζησαββίδης, Κωστούλη και Τσιπλάκου (2011)  «ο κριτικός γραμματισμός είναι ένα πρόγραμμα με το οποίο οργανώνουμε και  διδάσκουμε γλώσσα με στόχο να συνδέσουμε το πώς μέσα από τη γλώσσα  μεταδίδουμε ή αμφισβητούμε νοήματα που κυριαρχούν στο ευρύτερο κοινωνικό πλαίσιο».
Κοντά στα παραπάνω, αξίζει να σημειωθεί πως τα αναθεωρημένα προγράμματα σπουδών στην Ελλάδα καθώς και οι οδηγίες του Ινστιτούτου Εκπαιδευτικής Πολιτικής συνδιαμορφώνουν ένα τέτοιο πλαίσιο που δίνει μεγάλη έμφαση στον μαθητή και στις δυνατότητες και ευκαιρίες ερμηνείας και (ανα)νοηματοδότησης των λογοτεχνικών έργων: 
«Ο γενικός σκοπός της διδασκαλίας του µαθήµατος της λογοτεχνίας είναι η ενδυνάμωση της µορφωτικής επάρκειας, της επικοινωνιακής ικανότητας και της συναισθηματικής ανάπτυξης […]. Η επαφή µε αντιπροσωπευτικά έργα της πολιτιστικής µας κληρονομιάς, διευρύνει τα όρια της προσωπικής εμπειρίας και ευαισθησίας των μαθητών και τους καθιστά ανθρώπους ικανούς να αξιοποιούν ενεργητικά τη γνώση, να αναπτύσσουν τις αισθητικές αντιλήψεις τους, να παίρνουν κριτική θέση απέναντι σε βασικά ζητήματα της ατομικής και κοινωνικής ζωής και να διαμορφώνουν επιλεκτικά και υπεύθυνα τις προσωπικές τους στάσεις και πεποιθήσεις […]» (Αναλυτικό Πρόγραμμα Σπουδών, 2021)
Το λογοτεχνικό έργο που επελέγη – έτσι ώστε να υλοποιηθεί η διδακτική εφαρμογή του μοντέλου του Iser - προέρχεται από την ποιητική συλλογή του Ζυμβραγάκη Αποστόλη με τίτλο Επαναπροσδιορισμός (2021). Η μελέτη και η εφαρμογή του συγκεκριμένου θεωρητικού μοντέλου έχει ως στόχο να αποδείξει τη μεγάλη χρησιμότητα της γνώσης αυτών των θεωριών καθώς και την πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα δυνάμει προσέγγιση λογοτεχνικών έργων στη βάση της μελέτης του Iser που δίνει μεγάλη βαρύτητα στην αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ κειμένου και αναγνώστη: «η θεμελιώδης ασυμμετρία ανάμεσα στο κείμενο και τον αναγνώστη, […] η ανισορροπία ανάμεσα στο κείμενο και τον αναγνώστη […] αυξάνει την επικοινωνιακή δυνατότητα, καθιστούν τη διδακτική διαδικασία ψυχαγωγική και συνάμα εκπαιδευτική» (Iser, 2000).

Nel guardare ora al versante della ricezione, l'articolo cerca di fare il punto su quella che è l’idea di lettura in Meneghello, nel tentativo di individuare il ruolo assunto dal lettore e le sue modalità di approccio all’opera letteraria. Nell’affiancare una close reading e una visione d’insieme, il saggio  guarda a zone molteplici del macrotesto, privilegiando soprattutto gli scritti saggistici e di autocommento, per poi passare ai tre volumi delle Carte, dove la riflessione metaletteraria si unisce a un efficace understatement. Emerge, allora, il legame tra Meneghello e il suo pubblico, ma al tempo stesso si profila una galleria di ritratti dove il lettore diviene vero e proprio soggetto figurativo, in bilico tra il destinatario ideale e lo spettro con cui l’opera letteraria deve fare i conti in quello che è il suo processo creativo.