CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Kőszeghy, László |
|---|---|
| Title | The Reader Is Right: Productivism in Literary Interpretation |
| Summary | One of the major clash points in the debate around literary interpretation is whether the meaning of the literary work is pre-determined and is merely re-produced via interpretation or it is indeterminate and is produced by the reader. This thesis argues for the latter view holding that the reader not only necessarily but legitimately brings to bear on the work their own preconceptions. First, I show that the four most popular analytic theories of literary interpretation all subscribe to some form of re-productivism and even the most pluralistic-leaning versions of each potentially exlude valuable interpretations from the domain of legitimate readings. Then I argue for productivism by making the case for the legitimacy of preconceptions in literary interpretation. The legitimacy thesis is first supported by the showing that the re-productivist distinction between the work’s non-relational – regarded as central or primary – and relational meanings lacks sufficient support. Then I argue for the incompleteness of the literary work which implies that the reader legitimately projects their preconceptions on to the work. This is done through appealing to the idea of the historicity of the literary work which holds that the work’s relation to subsequent events and object can be a constitutive part of its meaning, and the idea that the literary work has gaps, that is, ambiguous or indeterminate parts which can pertain to its meaning. |
| Supervisor | Weberman, David |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/koszeghy_laszlo.pdf |
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