| This thesis brings aspects of research on human consciousness to bear on reader-response criticism. I believe that such an interdisciplinary approach has the potential to provide the theories I consider (and reader-response criticism in general) with a more specific and effective set of conceptual tools for understanding readers, reading processes, and response.;In chapter one of this thesis I consider the precise ways in which approaches to consciousness may communicate with, and specify reader-response criticism. I offer perspectives on works by Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in This Class?), Wolfgang Iser (The Act of Reading), and Roland Barthes (Image, Music, Text) that foreground a common need for specific =consciousness components.' I then offer some preliminary suggestions as to how these consciousness components might be integrated into the existing theories.;I continue in chapter two to construct basic consciousness components for each of the above mentioned reader-response theories. I integrate Daniel Dennett's (Consciousness Explained) Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness into my discussion of Fish, John Searle's ( The Mystery of Consciousness) concept of objective consciousness into my discussion Iser, and Richard Dawkins' (The Selfish Gene ) concept of memetics into my discussion of Barthes.;I conclude the thesis with a brief discussion of the ways in which textuality based approaches to interpretability redefine the distinctions between readers and texts in ways that are complimentary to my consciousness based approach. |
