Date of Award

4-1978

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

English

Abstract

In his essay entitled "Phenomenology of Heading" Georges Poulet explains how a "reading" is possible"

The universe of fiction is infinitely more elastic than the world of objective reality. It lends itself to any use; it yields with little resistance to the importunities of the mind. Moreover - and of all the benefits I find this the most appealing - this interior universe constituted by language does not seem radically opposed to the me who thinks it.... In short, since everything has become part of my mind, thanks to the intervention of language, the opposition between the subject and its objects has been considerably attenuated. And thus the greatest advantage of literature is that I am freed from my usual sense of incompatibility between my consciousness and its objects.

The dissolution of this subject-object dualism is not the only factor involved. Poulet shows that reading is "a way of giving way not only to a host of alien words, images, ideas, but also to the very alien principle which utters them and shelters them.

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