Towards a theory of reception for written literature with reference to printed works of Anne Hébert and other authors

grantor: University of TorontoLiterary theoreticians conceptualize literature through modern notions of "text" according to which a text is something either emanating from or closely connected with a literary work's linguistic structure. The holders of these notions often ignore a literary work's linguistic medium because they assume, as do linguists, that linguistic structure transcends linguistic media. This attitude has impeded our understanding of literary reception. Although writing and speech convey language through different means, many literary theories purporting to account for silent reading disregard the specificity of written texts and the written-visual mode of reception. Wolfgang Iser's account of the act of reading is no exception. I argue that we should think of the response-inviting structure he calls the "implied reader" as containing two structures: an "implied receiver" of a linguistic origin and an "implied viewer" of a bibliographic or material origin. Next, I examine printed texts that exist in more than one version. I identify three types of "polymorphic bookworks" and analyse their origins. Publishers change the attributes of printed texts because they want to stimulate different mental images in those who read or view them. These images may have a significance relating to either a text's narrative content or to some external entity such as the author, publisher or reader. Texts with polymorphic bookworks are the keys to furthering our understanding of writing and the written-visual mode of reception. The thesis has appendices containing: a bibliographic description of the versions of Anne Hebert's novels published between 1958 and 1994; a set of histographs showing when these versions were published; and a checklist for the study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century bookworks.Ph.D