Prospecting by Wolfgang Iser
Why do we need literature and what does this need tell us about human nature? Iser shows how these questions come from his work on reader-response criticism and that the answers may lie in the new field of literary anthropology. He relates theoretical issues to analyses of individual works.
An important transitional book, usefully summarizing the past and thoughtfully mapping out the future of a significant critic's theoretical projectModern Philology There is a much greater emphasis on the reader's function as 'performer' of the text in Prospecting than in Iser's other books. The two brilliant chapters on Beckett's fiction and drama are crucial here... Literature becomes 'play' and 'game,' and the reader becomes a performer of himself. This idea of performance becomes central to Iser's new theory. Art does not present life; it performs it. Yearbook of English Studies.
Wolfgang Iser is professor of English at the University of Constance. His previous books include The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology, The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response and The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780801845932 |
| ISBN 10 | 0801845939 |
| Title | Prospecting |
| Author | Wolfgang Iser |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| Year published | 1993-03-29 |
| Number of pages | 328 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |