Iser-The Reading Process - Essay Example

The Reading Process: Isler Reading involves the artistic element of what the wrote as well as the aesthetic nature of how the reader interprets what is read, making the work something that can exist only virtually somewhere between overstrain and boredom, which are the boundaries of good literature. The dynamic process thus consists of written text which imposes limits on unwritten implications while these unwritten implications are filled in with information supplied by the reader and effects the way in which other parts of the written text are interpreted.

Sentences exist as components of the work that take on different meanings to create a world and form an expectation. However, expectations are seldom fulfilled, instead building upon each other, modifying each other. “Thus, the reader, in establishing these interrelations between past, present and future, actually causes the text to reveal its potential multiplicity of connections. These connections are the product of the reader’s mind working on the raw material of the text, though they are not the text itself” (Isler).

Timing plays a critical element in the interpretation of a work such that a second reading can not repeat the same experiences of the first. Finally, in interpreting the text, the work becomes something of a mirror, revealing the way in which the reader thinks while forcing them to think about things from a different perspective than their natural surroundings. Envisioning is another part of the interactive process as something different from observing that encourages the active use of the imagination.

When something is observed, the imagination is no longer called into play, diminishing the reading experience. The concept of grouping also plays a large role, as the reader continuously strives to group information together in configurations that make sense according to their interpretation of the text. Grouping provides the author with the tool of illusion. Although illusion can be overused, some illusion is necessary. “Without the formation of illusions, the unfamiliar world of the text would remain unfamiliar.

” It is through the process of building and experiencing illusions that the reader opens himself to the unfamiliar world of the text without becoming imprisoned in it. It is only through reading that we are able to uncover this unformulated portion of the text and helps us develop a formulated meaning, but still allows us the freedom to develop this meaning on our own. It is as our interpretation shifts with the emergence of other possible interpretations that the reader imbues the work with a lifelike quality which works to provoke a greater response in the reader.

To understand the text as a work of art, though, it is necessary to be able to reconstruct the basic organizational structure envisioned by the author through the use of literary patterns and themes as well as techniques used to set the familiar against the unfamiliar. Finally, through reading, we are able to bring forward thoughts and ideas from our subconscious to our conscious, changing and being changed by what we read.