Wolfgang Iser’s essay The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach, delineates the author-reader relationship in completion of a literary work, where the author plays the ‘artistic’ role, which is that of the creator of the text, and the reader plays the ‘aesthetic’ role, which, he mentions is the process of the ‘realization’ of the text . (Iser 279) He refers to Roman Ingarden’s “Intentionale Satzkorrelate” (Intentional sentence correlatives), where the interaction of the otherwise incoherent sentences forms a coherent whole of a piece of art work. This, along with the role of the reader to form the ‘gestalt’ of the literary text can be co-opted to closely frisk the writing technique of Virgnia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, where she employs
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These sentences lack meaning individually. It is only in the reading process that the reader attempts to impart a unity to this fragmented piece of work, a unity to bring about a short-lived consistency, and form an interpretation from all the scope that the text offers. But as the reader tries to synthesize the fragments and knit together the inherently scattered parts, certain expectations regarding the meaning are instigated which, ironically are never fulfilled. They are rather deferred and delayed that creates an anxiety to probe deeper into the text which opens a realm of multiplicity and plurality to the reader, to foster a ‘free-play’ of interpretations. This process reverberates Jacques Derrida’s theory of ‘differance’, the difference in the meanings that leads to a deferment of the desired meaning, the decentralization of the centre, where he negates the centrality of the text, rejects the totality of meaning and endorses the free play of meanings and interpretations (Derrida 5). This very free play can be exercised by the reader in the reading of modern texts where the writer leaves enough lacunae to be filled in by the reader in the reading process. Louis M. Rosenblatt in his essay Towards a transactional theory of reading, upholds the idea of the reader being an active participant in meaning-making process, and not just a passive receiver of the text. (Rossenblatt 4) He also talks about the vacillation of the reader back and forth while reading , that is very much linked to Derrida’s ‘differance’, as primary reading is insufficient to make the text comprehensible to the reader, so he keeps retreating and revisiting to form connections and extract possible meanings. In the given extract- Mrs. Dalloway buying flower, Lucy’s work being cut, the coming of Rumpelmayer’s men, all these activities make no sense to the reader, and bring about a slight bafflement, until
These sentences lack meaning individually. It is only in the reading process that the reader attempts to impart a unity to this fragmented piece of work, a unity to bring about a short-lived consistency, and form an interpretation from all the scope that the text offers. But as the reader tries to synthesize the fragments and knit together the inherently scattered parts, certain expectations regarding the meaning are instigated which, ironically are never fulfilled. They are rather deferred and delayed that creates an anxiety to probe deeper into the text which opens a realm of multiplicity and plurality to the reader, to foster a ‘free-play’ of interpretations. This process reverberates Jacques Derrida’s theory of ‘differance’, the difference in the meanings that leads to a deferment of the desired meaning, the decentralization of the centre, where he negates the centrality of the text, rejects the totality of meaning and endorses the free play of meanings and interpretations (Derrida 5). This very free play can be exercised by the reader in the reading of modern texts where the writer leaves enough lacunae to be filled in by the reader in the reading process. Louis M. Rosenblatt in his essay Towards a transactional theory of reading, upholds the idea of the reader being an active participant in meaning-making process, and not just a passive receiver of the text. (Rossenblatt 4) He also talks about the vacillation of the reader back and forth while reading , that is very much linked to Derrida’s ‘differance’, as primary reading is insufficient to make the text comprehensible to the reader, so he keeps retreating and revisiting to form connections and extract possible meanings. In the given extract- Mrs. Dalloway buying flower, Lucy’s work being cut, the coming of Rumpelmayer’s men, all these activities make no sense to the reader, and bring about a slight bafflement, until