Fictional reader

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The term of the fictional reader or fictional addressee (English narratee ) forms the correlate of the narrator on the discours level ( cf.histoire versus discours ) of a narrative text as a literary or literary theoretical concept , but is terminologically less widespread than the term narrator. The fictitious reader mostly appears as a fictitious, often directly addressed “partner” of the narrator drawn into the text.

The concept of the fictional reader is based on the assumption that every narrative has an addressee to whom it is addressed; In the communication model of narrative texts, the fictitious reader as an instance on the receiving end represents the instance corresponding to the narrator as the sender . The fictitious reader can be distinguished within the text from reader figures on the figure level and from the implicit reader ; on the text-external level, the concept of the fictitious reader is opposed to concepts or constructs such as those of the “ ideal ” or “ intended ” reader.

Within these conceptual demarcations, different degrees of explicity of the fictional reader can be determined, which lie between the poles of “implicit fictional addressee” ( covert narratee ) and “explicit fictional addressee” ( overt narratee ). According to G. Prince (1980), all forms or expressions of the fictional reader share the characteristics of the zero-degree narratee , who is endowed with similar or identical skills as the narrator, but has no personality of its own and is dependent on the narration and value judgments of the Is instructed by the narrator. Due to the lack of knowledge of the world or experience, the fictitious reader cannot perceive any internal or implicit causalities or connections.

The zero-degree narratee also represents the zero level of the scaling of addressee types and is therefore identical to the cover narratee . The clearer or more explicit the signals by means of which the fictitious reader can be grasped in the text, the closer the addressee type moves to the overt narratee . Such signals can be found in the text, for example, in direct reader addresses of an authorial narrator or in the inclusive use of the personal pronoun “we” ( we ) or in rhetorical questions from the narrator that take up or reproduce the assumed or assumed questions of the fictional reader.

The transitions to the next communication level or level are fluid at the extreme points of this scale; in this way, a fictitious reader explicitly through numerous textual signals can also become a reader figure. The transition from covert narratee to the implicit reader is just as fluid and the distinction or demarcation depends on the respective concept of the implicit reader.

literature

  • P. Goetsch : Reader figures in storytelling . In: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 33 (1983), pp. 199–215.
  • Wolfgang Iser : The implicit reader - forms of communication in the novel from Bunyan to Beckett . Fink Verlag , 3rd edition Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7705-0793-2 ( UTB ISBN 3-8252-0163-5 ).
  • G. Prince: The Narratee Revisited . In: Style 19.3 (1985), pp. 299-303.
  • WD Wilson : Readers in Texts . In: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America , 96, 1981, pp. 848-863.
  • Erwin Wolff : The intended reader. Considerations and examples for the introduction of a literary term . In: POETICA. Zeitschrift für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft 4 (1971), pp. 141–166.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaudia Seibel: readers, fictional . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 145, and Heike Gfrereis (Ed.): Reader . In: Heike Gfrereis (ed.): Basic concepts of literary studies ; Metzler Verlag , Stuttgart and Weimar 1999, ISBN 978-3-476-10320-8 , p. 111.
  2. ↑ See E. Wolff: The Intended Reader . In: POETICA 4 (1971), pp. 141-166. See also Klaudia Seibel: readers, fictional . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 145.
  3. ↑ Klaudia Seibel: readers, fictional . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 145.
  4. ↑ Klaudia Seibel: readers, fictional . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , p. 145.