Iser Wolfgang Interaction between Text and Reader Overview and Study Questions Isers essay represents an important example of reader response criticism, an approach to literature that emphasizes the role the reader plays in creating the meaning of a work of art. Iser argues that a given works meaning is not inherent in the authors intention, or in the text, but in the interaction between its structure and its recipient (1673). Isers is a phenomenonological approach to literature to the extent that it studies the subjective experience of reading, what goes on inside ones head as one reads the words on the page. Iser takes his model for the act of reading from the psychology of communication, and specifically efforts to account for the dynamics of verbal exchange. Iser is drawn in particular to those scholars who try to understand how communication happens given that we dont have any other access to peoples experiences or thoughts other than what they tell us. The fact that we have an extremely limited access to other peoples thoughts, values, and assumptions, forces us to interpret what other people say. Our interpretations of another persons thoughts, values, views, and the like, influence our interaction with them. When were talking to someone else, our impression of what they think about us and about the world will impact how we approach them, whether or not were aggressive or polite, joking or direct; our interpretation of others also impacts how we respond to what they say to us, whether or not we perceive a given statement as hostile or as deferential. Social context provides a host of other clues that help us in our interpretations and in our efforts to understand a given exchange and keep it going. In a face-to-face exchange, you can always ask for clarification, ask questions to gain more information to try to bridge the gap between you and the person with whom youre talking. Though the dynamic of communication serves as a model for thinking about how we make sense of a literary text, there are important limits to this analogy. One crucial difference is that the interaction between reader and text is precisely not a face-to-face exchange. What Socrates took as a damning accusation about writingthe fact that you cant engage in dialogue with written wordsIser takes as a point of departure for thinking about the processes through which we nevertheless strive to make meaning from a work of art. Just as there are gaps or blanks in our knowledge about other people, there are gaps in literary texts, and the problem Iser addresses is how come we to terms with those gaps, how we create in our own mind a framework for understanding what any given narrative is trying to say. If someone approaches you on the street and says I love those sunglasses! we will respond to that utterance based on a whole host of information whether or not the person is someone you know, someone you know but dont like, a complete stranger dressed in elegant clothes, a complete stranger wearing tattered clothes, a complete stranger aiming a gun at you, whether or not it is day or night, whether or not you are actually wearing sunglasses, and so on. When we pick up a book, we are forced to infer all of the information that would help us make sense of any given statement. This is what Iser means by filling the blanks with
projections (1676). When we read a novel, were confronted with a situation; turn the page and there is another situation, other characters talking about other things. The reader is forced to put together a plausible account of how these two situations are connected. Subsequent scenes or episodes create more blanks that force us to develop our explanation, or maybe even to revise it in order to make the narrative continue to make sense. The continual process of reading more scenes or episodes in a text generates a whole framework which is constantly being revised as we turn each page; each time were forced to fill in another blank, we make more assumptions, gather more information, which impacts the sense we make of a text. The action on page 100 (a character fires a gun) makes sense of the odd detail on page 2 (the character finds a gun on the ground) and perhaps forces us to rethink all of our assumptions that weve made about that character along the way (the character is the parish priest). For Iser, then, making sense of a text is an ongoing, dynamic process. Discussion Questions: 1. What is a referential field? 2. What is a vacancy? 3. How would you compare Isers approach to literature to Derridas approach to texts and language? 4. How does Isers reader response theory relate to Aristotles views on narrative? 5. Does Iser believe a text can mean anything at all? If so, how so? If not, what would limit what a text can mean? 6. Isers privileged example for text/reader interaction is the novel, specifically the eighteenth-century novel. Does his model work for other genres (like lyric poetry, plays, epic poems, etc. . .)? 7. Is reading like communication? 8. Do you think Isers description of the reading process works for everyone? Is his account necessarily true for everyone?