Reading Works of Literary Art

Abstract

ions such as control, stability, power, or violence let us assume that our consciousness is actualizing dormant resources at each step of the reading process. However, it is not merely the given information which is affected by our extrinsic knowledge; the cognition of lacunae, too, is determined by our stockpiled experience. This experience tells us in the first place that at a specific point more information could have been supplied, and we contemplate what might be possibly added. Once we have found an unfilled area, we decide whether or not we ought to fill in anything at all a decision taken in terms of what shall call thematic relevance. This thematic relevance is in turn decided upon in a gradual and continuous synthesizing act in which textual information is activated by means of our stock of knowledge at hand. Having decided to fill in a lacuna of indeterminacy, we tap our resources of experience within the horizon of thematic relevance. We discuss, for instance, the given self-sufficiency of the I in contrast with human action as embedded in a complex social network, and the given unquestioned assertion of violent control as juxtaposed with the moral dimension which the presented actions and attitude would impart in a human context. If, on the other hand, we have decided not to fill a specific lacuna, we still have to clarify whether the absence of some information may not in itself serve as an interpretive clue, an example of which has been briefly demonstrated above. What we have called general and specifically literary experience has remained grossly undefined if compared with our attempt at a careful investigation of the reading process. To describe how these kinds of experience are probably stored in our consciousness is a task quite beyond the confines of this paper. But to suggest at least a direction for further discussion of this point, let me recommend the seminal works of Alfred Schutz, who views man's stored experience in terms of typifications.1 Schutz argues that instead of applying retentions of specific details to the situations which we daily face, we encounter This content downloaded from 157.55.39.173 on Thu, 19 May 2016 05:49:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms