Eco's Poetics of “The Model Reader”

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Francese

In this essay the author argues that despite Eco's claims of ceding authority over his fictions to the reader, his poetics of the Model Reader serves to guide and condition reception. This is accomplished when the call for reader collaboration encourages the creation of a Model Author — a projection of reader desire for narrative closure and metaphysical certainty — who supplants the empirical writer as the ‘true’ author of the text. When the empirical author is granted this creative and ideological invisibility, Model Readers find reassurance in novels in which the writer re-creates and re-orders the past according to both conscious and unconscious desires. His kindred spirits, or Model Readers, endorse his condensing of the past into the here-and-now of the writing subject. This effacement time creates a semblance of realism that is re-enforced by the empirical author's use of pastiche, the incorporation into the literary text of what is already known, that is to say what has already been read. Such tautological ‘hyper-realism’ provides the basis for agreement on ‘common sense’ interpretations of the text, giving ‘normal’ readings normative status, thus de-legitimating readings that vary from Eco's ‘strong’ authorial intentions.

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
E. N. Tsimbaeva

The article analyzes physical and physiological problems caused by fashionable clothing in the mid-18th to early 20th cc. that shaped people’s appearances and lifestyles in the past. Affecting the skeletal system and the functioning of internal organs and brain in particular and causing various illnesses, these problems went largely unrecognized by contemporaries, including writers, but would inevitably surface in literary works as part and parcel of everyday life. Without understanding their role, one may struggle to comprehend not only plot twists and characters’ motivations but also the mentality of the bygone era as portrayed in fiction. Chronologically, the research covers the period from the mid-18th c. to World War I. The author only focuses on so-called respectable society (a very tentative term that covers members of the aristocracy and other classes with comparable lifestyles), since it was this group which drew the most attention from fiction writers of the period. The scholar chose to concentrate on the kind of daily realia of ‘noble society’ that permeate works by Russian, English, French and, to some extent, German authors, considered most prominent in Europe at the time.


Author(s):  
Umriniso Rahmatovna Turaeva

The history of the Turkestan Jadid movement and the study of Jadid literature show that it has not been easy to study this subject. The socio-political environment of the time led to the blind reduction of the history of continuous development of Uzbek literature, artificial reduction of the literary heritage of the past on the basis of dogmatic thinking, neglect of the study of works of art and literary figures. As a result, the creation of literary figures of a certain period, no matter how important, remained unexplored.


Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105971232199468
Author(s):  
Jeannette Pols

The response asks about the relationship between artist and audience in the RAAAF artworks. Is the artist an Autonomous Innovator who breaches the ties with the past and the environment? Or is the aesthetic practice located in the creation of relationships around these objects, hence expanding the artwork by using know-how, experiences and enthusiasm of the audience/users?


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1893-1893
Author(s):  
I. Manor ◽  
G. Yazpan

ADHD is a well-known, chronic disorder that persists in adulthood. During the past 20 years its existence in adults is becoming clearer, yet its dynamic aspects are rarely discussed. The treatment of adults is vital, as much as that of children; however the literature discussing it, especially its non-pharmacological aspect, is scarce.We describe the results of our treatment with drama-therapy of two groups of adults with ADHD. These groups included 11 adults (from both groups), men and women, from most socioeconomic strata, aged ≥ 60 yrs., who were diagnosed as suffering from ADHD and were treated for it for the first time in their life. Drama-therapy was selected as we believed it to be a useful method with associative, distracted ADHD patients, since it enabled the use of transitional space through non-verbal images and acts.This presentation discusses the basic themes with which patients began therapy. Interestingly, all patients, however different, shared the same themes that were built on self doubt and the pre-presumption of disappointment. The impairment related to ADHD, that was felt, but not understood, led to a strong experience of heavy losses, which we tried to define separately: of a clear path, of control, of the inner perception of borders and of the loss of an integrative inner self. All these losses were accumulated in the transitional space in a place we named “Nowhere land”.We would like to present these themes of losses and of becoming lost and to discuss their meaning.


2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-40
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Wheeler

For the Past Five Decades, media texts, broadcast over television air waves, have created a shared identity among viewing audiences. John B. Thompson notes that if culture is understood as “the ways in which meaningful expressions of various kinds are produced, constructed and received by individuals”, then mass media can be understood as central to the creation and maintenance of culture (pp. 122-23). The words and images that construct a media culture are the very building blocks of collective identity. As Michael Schudson observes, “news is part of the background through which and with which people think” (p. 16).


Philosophy ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 48 (186) ◽  
pp. 363-379
Author(s):  
A. C. Ewing

Philosophers have not been sceptical only about metaphysics or religious beliefs. There are a great number of other beliefs generally held which they have had at least as much difficulty in justifying, and in the present article I ask questions as to the right philosophical attitude to these beliefs in cases where to our everyday thought they seem so obvious as to be a matter of the most ordinary common sense. A vast number of propositions go beyond what is merely empirical and cannot be seen to be logically necessary but are still believed by everybody in their daily life. Into this class fall propositions about physical things, other human minds and even propositions about one's own past experiences based on memory, for we are not now ‘observing’ our past. The phenomenalist does not escape the difficulty about physical things, for he reduces physical object propositions, in so far as true, not merely to propositions about his own actual experience but to propositions about the experiences of other human beings in general under certain conditions, and he cannot either observe or logically prove what the experiences of other people are or what even his own would be under conditions which have not yet been fulfilled. What is the philosopher to say about such propositions? Even Moore, who insisted so strongly that we knew them, admitted that we did not know how we knew them. The claim which a religious man makes to a justified belief that is neither a matter of purely empirical perception nor formally provable is indeed by no means peculiar to the religious. It is made de facto by everybody in his senses, whether or not he realizes that he is doing so. There is indeed a difference: while everyone believes in the existence of other human beings and in the possibility of making some probable predictions about the future from the past, not everybody holds religious beliefs, and although this does not necessarily invalidate the claim it obviously weakens it.


2021 ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Bynagari Chandra Shekar ◽  
Veerendra Uppin ◽  
Madhu Pujar

The aim of a root end lling is to prevent irritants from the root canal from leaking into the periapical region and to improve the apical seal created by nonsurgical endodontic care. Various restorative materials that have been used for coronal restorations have been tried and tested as root end lling materials, as well as the creation of restorative materials designed specically for root end lling. In the past, amalgam was the preferred material for root end lling. MTA, a recently established material that meets almost all of the criteria for an ideal root end lling material, has become the gold standard against which newer materials are measured. This article examines traditional endodontic root end materials and provides an overview of recent advancements in root end lling


Author(s):  
George C. Edwards

This chapter traces the origins of the electoral college. The Constitution's framers chose a unique and complex method of selecting the president—one that clearly violates fundamental tenets of political equality and majority rule. As such, this chapter considers the historical motivations behind the founding of electoral colleges, such as slavery, legislative intrigue, population differences, and voter parochialism. Afterward, it argues that most of the motivations behind the creation of the electoral college are irrelevant today and can be easily dismissed. In addition, the broad thrust of constitutional revision over the past two centuries has been in the direction of democratization and majority rule.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document