General Editors' Preface General In troduction 1 Contexts： History， Politics， Culture Introduction British Empire， decline and loss Censorship Class structure Cold War Counter—culture Feminism and the role of women Holocaust Migrant experience and multiculturalism Northern Irish 'troubles' Political protest Popular culture Religion Science and technological innovation Sex and sexuality War Youth culture 2 Texts： Themes， Issues， Concepts Introduction Absurdist theatre Alternative theatre Anglo—Welsh literature 'Angry young men' Avant—garde poetry Black British literature Campus novel Class Concrete poetry Empire， end of Englishness Epic theatre Gay and lesbian writing Genre fiction History Holocaust literature Irish literature 'Kitchen sink' drama Language poetry London， literary representations of Magic realism Marketing of literature Modernism， legacy of Movement， the Nature New voices in 21 st—century literature Performance poetry Political commitment Postcolonial literature Postmodern literature Realism Regional identity Scottish literature Theatre of Cruelty Underground poetry Urban experience Women's writing 3 Criticism： Approaches， Theory， Practice Introduction Cultural materialism Deconstruction Dialogic theory Feminist criticism Gender criticism Leavisite criticism Marxist criticism Narratology New Criticism New Historicism Postcolonial criticism Postmodemist theory Poststructuralism Psychoanalytic criticism Reader—response criticism Structuralism Notes Chronology General Index Index of Works Cited
摘要
Another influential German critic of the period， Wolfgang Iser，adopted a similar， if less historically located， theory to that offered by Jauss.In Iser's version of reader—response theory， the text is only a site of potential meaning in itself； it requires the contribution of the reader to render it concrete.The reader， as in Jauss's theory， brings to the text perceptions and perspectives based on his or her own experience， values， attitudes and understanding of the world.Iser also allowed that the text guides the reader towards a particular interpretation to some degree； the extent to which this will be the case depends on the individual text and on the reader's level of competency.However， even where a text provides considerable direction there will be 'gaps'， as Iser termed them， which the reader's interpretative strategies 'fill in'， according to his or her world—view.Iser extended his theoretical position still further：the reader's experience will be changed throughout the process of reading， leading to a continuing process of re—evaluation and modification， according to how the reader's textual expectations are met.In Iser's view， the human compulsion to make sense of the world by establishing coherence on events and experience is one that also translates to the act of reading， which becomes a process of continuing interpretation and reinterpretation， to arrive at possible and provisional meanings that most closely reflect the individual reader's perceptions and experience， rather than a single universal and determinate meaning.
