The Specifics of the Problem of Subject in Receptive Aesthetics and Literary Anthropology of W. Iser

Abstract

The paper attempts to investigate literary anthropology of W. Iser, created by him on the basis of receptive aesthetics. It is included a perspective of the historical and theoretical formation of Iser’s theory, as well as an actual point of view, related to the “anthropological turn” of humanities. There is an intention to demonstrate the philosophical value of Iser’s conception. It is emphasized the problem of subjective experience, the key features of which can be revealed through the study of the process of reading fiction. Iser defines his approach to the study of literature as functional, considering fiction as a medium in communication between text, reality and the reader. The focus of attention is on the transformations of subjectivity, involved through imagination in reading. Human presence, linked with a transcendental position, becomes apparent in the process of reading; however, it turns out to be connected with the essential uncertainty, the constant variability of subjective attitudes. Literature is explored as a medium of such an anthropological feature as human’s own inaccessibility for her|himself.