Reader Response Theory - can be traced back to Aristotle and Plato - literature’s effect on the reader - sources in the writings of the French structuralists (who stress the role of the perceiver as a maker of reality) - reader criticism became recognized as a distinct critical movement only in the 1970s - less a unified critical school than a vague collection of disparate critics with a common point of departure - “Reader Theory” “audience theory” neutral terms
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Readers have been responding to what they have read and experienced since the dawn of literature. For example‚ we have Plate and Aristotle who were concerned about audience responses and how plays generated pity and fear on them. Still‚ the audience or readers were passive. After the appearance of reader response theory‚ readers are activated. They involve themselves to elaborate the text‚ fill in the gaps and enact their experiences with the text. Most reader response critics can be divided into
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RESPONSE PAPER ON THE HEART OF DARKNESS I want to do my short paper on The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and compare this story with the spirit of industrialization. I was going to support this idea based on nature of the soul and relate that to Kurtz by showing that nature of the soul is that involving irrational and rational components ‚ irrational being needs and‚ instincts or wants but can be controlled by reason. The other part is rational‚ or cognitive‚ to think or remember. In
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to Self Discovery Heart of Darkness‚ by Joseph Conrad‚ is a short novel about Marlow‚ a pensive sailor‚ and his journey up the Congo River to meet an idealist named Kurtz. Marlow works as a riverboat captain with a Belgian company organized to trade in the Congo. Throughout his journey‚ Marlow encounters extensive forms of brutality‚ thus taking him on another journey: one of self discovery and a newfound attitude towards life through encountering “the heart of darkness”. The notion of a change
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being killed‚ are common stories surrounding imperialism. Heart of Darkness‚ finely details the worst kind of African imperialism‚ the Belgian kind. Millions of people‚ in what today is called the Congo‚ were forcefully enslaved‚ and then made to gather ivory tusks‚ and rubber plants‚ all the time being treated as animals‚ for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of the Belgian monarchy. These scenes shock the more caring‚ and kind hearted reader‚ in today’s world‚ and leave questions swirling in the
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Monsters in Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s varying depiction of women in his novel Heart of Darkness provides feminist literary theory with ample opportunity to explore the overlying societal dictation of women’s gender roles and expectations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The majority of feminist theorists claim that Conrad perpetuates patriarchal ideology‚ yet there are a few that argue the novel is gendered feminine. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar claim “Conrad’s Heart of Darkness…penetrates
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Duţă Professor Dr. Carmen-Adina Ciugureanu/ Lecturer Dr. Florian Andrei Vlad Romanian-English‚ Second Year 13 May 2014 Notes on the title of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness It makes good sense to suggest that a title is conventionally chosen to represent the main idea of a novella‚ to correlate with a theme or motif. Heart of Darkness is no exception. Published in 1902‚ the novella illustrates the mentality and the culture of the white people at that time. They were confident in themselves and
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we still study Heart of Darkness? Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad in 1899. It is still studied today as it is considered an exemplary moral text. It explores complex moral issues which are challenging for contemporary youths and demonstrates the effect that isolation can have on a person. Also‚ it reveals the nature of colonialism in Africa in the late nineteenth century making it significant from a historical and political perspective. Heart of Darkness is studied for
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The immortality and blindness to a dark continent Joseph Conrad’s s novel “Heart of Darkness” portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual‚ physical continent of Africa as “so hopeless and so dark‚ so impenetrable to human thought‚ so pitiless to human weakness”‚ (Conrad 2180) as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life. Conrad lived through a time when European colonies were scattered all over the world. This phenomenon
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Issue 5‚ October 2012‚ ISSN 2278-4853 HEART OF DARKNESS: JOSEPH CONRAD’S ANTI-IMPERIALISTIC PERSPECTIVE THROUGH RACISM‚ PESSIMISM AND IMPRESSIONISM LAKMINIRADEESHANIKABASNAYAKE* *Lecturer in English‚ Department of English Language Teaching‚ Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka‚ Belihuloya‚ Sri Lanka. ABSTRACT Imperialism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is one of the chief focal aspects of critical controversy and debate in the fields of literary theory and literary criticism. The aim of the study
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