Traduccin Literaria Reception theory Literary texts do not exist on bookshelves: they are processes of signification materialised only

in the practice of reading The reader plays a vital role. The evolution of modern literary theory: in three stages A preoccupation with AUTHOR An exclusive concern with the TEXT A Marked shift of attention to the READER What is involved in the act of reading?: What did you make of the new couple? The Hanemas, Piet and Angela, were undressing. John Updike, Couples Puzzled, lack of connection between the 2 sentences. Possible interpretations: literary convention: we may attribute a piece of direct speech to a character even if the text does not explicitly do this itself. We make a whole set of inferences as we read the sentences. We are driven by our ignorance to a process of speculating and inferring. We, as readers, construct an interpretation. You would think I care, and I did for a while, but not now. While it was happening, and for some time after, I cared so much I must have been nearly mad, but I dont care now. Ian Cross, The God Boy The Readers (unconscious) task: Make implicit connections Fill in gaps Draw inferences Test out hunches Draw on a tacit knowledge of the world in general and of literary conventions in particular The reader concretizes the work, which is in itself no more than a chain of organized black marks on a page. Without this continuous active participation on the readers part, there would be no literary work at all. Basic concepts: Gaps Indeterminates, indeterminacy elements which depend for their effect upon the readers interpretation, and which can be interpreted in a number of different, perhaps mutually conflicting ways. Paradox: the more information the work provides, the more indeterminate it becomes. Shakespeares secret black midnight hags in one sense narrows down what kind of hags are in question, makes them more determinate, but because all three adjectives are richly suggestive, evokingdifferent responses in different readers. Actualization reading is not a straightforward linear movement, a merely cumulative affair: our initial speculations generate a frame of reference within which to interpret what comes next, but what comes next may retrospectively transform our original understanding. We read backwards and forwards simultaneously. Pre-understandings a dim context of beliefs and expectations within which the works various features will be assessed. Concretisation the reader will select and organize the texts elements into consistent wholes, excluding some and foregrounding others.

 Plurality and open-endedness Implied and Actual reader The term implied reader is defined as the reader whom the text creates for itself and amounts to a network of response-inviting structures, which predispose us to read in certain ways. In contrast, the actual reader is defined as the reader who receives certain mental images in the process of reading; however, the images will inevitably be coloured by the readers existing stock of experience. Horizon of expectations it reveals the way in which the text interacts with the readers interpretation. Its an intersubjective system or structure of expectations, a system of references or a mind-set that a hypothetical individual might bring to any text. Challenging traditional ideas: The text as a coherent whole Different readers are free to actualize the work in different ways, and there is no single correct interpretation that will exhaust its semantic potential The reader is engaged in fighting the text as much as interpreting it, struggling to pin down its anarchic polysemantic potential within some manageable framework Reading brings us into deeper self-consciousness, catalyses a more critical view of our own identities. It is as though what we have been reading, in working our way through a book, is ourselves