Wolfgang Iser's Reader-response Critical Approach To The Dirty Realism In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Acknowledged as a major influence in contemporary American fiction,Raymond Carver is widely credited with revitalizing the short-story genre.Many labels have been applied to Carver's style,but the most appropriate one should be “Dirty Realism.”His short story collection,Cathedral,often identified as a transitional work in his career,departs from the intensely minimalist style that characterized much of his earlier work.However,as Raymond Carver is well known for his sparse,pared-down style,a style that invites readers to contribute their own interpretations through connections that are not overtly communicated textually,it is necessary to interpret the collection with a reader-response critical approach.This thesis analyzes Carver's Cathedral from the perspective of Wolfgang Iser's reader-response critical theory.By filling in the gaps in the silences between the characters and the open endings,it can be found that Carver's language is understated with much silence and omission,and his characters are always ordinary people with unremarkable occupations,who are isolated by their feelings.They cannot get over with their problems without the ability to articulate themselves.There is much that has not been told in the text,and that is Carver's dirty realist style.In addition,by grasping the implied reader rooted in the textual structure,readers get to know some more hopeful motifs in this collection: the characters' recovery from alcoholism and self-alienation,as well as the epiphany in their lives.These hopeful themes make Cathedral become a transitional work in Carver's career,which provides greater insight into the emotions of the characters and provides them with much more possibilities of hopefulness.The purpose of this research is to show that Cathedral isone of the representative masterpiece of Carver's dirty realist style.