The Implied Reader

By Wolfgang Iser,

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

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Implied Reader as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Wolfgang Iser isn’t for the faint of heart. You don’t read him as much as wrestle. But in this work, the German theorist teaches you to watch for the ghost of the reader who haunts fiction, the one who isn’t quite there, but always right next to you, implied by the text as the intended audience, the ideal reader (who isn’t quite you).

He’s German and this is literary theory, so put away your phone, but if you can wrestle with Iser it will change forever how you read anything.

From Daniel's list on reading about reading.

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