Autonomy, agency, addressivity : reflections and critique on the reader‘s role in relation to the novel

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to identify the complexities and nuances in the duality of the reader‘s role in the reading of works of fiction. According to Roland Barthes, who serves as a starting point for this argument, there are two types of text: the readerly and the writerly. The readerly text is deemed to be straightforward and needs only to be consumed by the passive reader. The writerly text is one in which the reader is invited to become a co-creator of the work, which allows for a union, rather than a separation, of reader and writer. The importance of the reader is strongly tied to the value of the novel, an argument that is brought to light by Peter Boxall. Boxall‘s The Value of the Novel, a key work in this dissertation, suggests that society has forgotten the inherent value that is to be accessed within the novel, and that can only be accessed through the process of reading. Research into the interaction that takes place between the reader and the writer shows that there is a bigger conversation taking place, that approaches the argument from different perspectives and levels of experience. This research, however, highlighted the reader as being at the centre of these interactions and it is for this reason that I chose the role of the reader as the focus of this dissertation. To examine this more closely, two novels were chosen for close study. These are Laurence Sterne‘s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and Italo Calvino‘s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. These two novels were chosen based on their experimental qualities, as well as on their reputation for being novels that seek out reader interaction. What became evident was that even when the writer is writing what appears to be a writerly text and is inviting the reader to complete the work in conjunction with him, the reader is still acting under the writer‘s influence. Thus, this dissertation also seeks to question past critical positions on readers and their potential, which were built on undue confidence.