Literature theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Literature theory - Essay Example The only difference is that Iser impresses that the value of literature is in making sense of the literature itself while Barthes says literature is the product of the culture. According to Barthes, readers too read and find meaning in the literature just as anthropologists do. These are often expressed symbolically. Iser too finds gaps in the literature of which the reader is expected to make sense. The reader is also expected to make moral judgments of the characters, according to Iser. Compare/contrast the rhetorical theories of Iser and Fetterly. Try to identify areas of agreement and disagreement in their discussions of how readers read and/or how poetry affects its audiences. (186 words). Fetterly states that most of American literature has been written by male and from a male perspective. It also reflects the male oppressive attitude towards women and a woman is expected to identify against herself when she reads such literature. Fetterly further insists that a woman should resist what the literature wants her to do. In contrast Iser feels the value of the literature lies in trying to make sense of the literature. While Fetterly states that women should not allow this sort of literature to affect us as the literature carries the culture, Iser contends that we do not perceive or absorb all that the literature wants to convey at the same time. It takes place over a period of time. Fetterly believes that women should attempt to change the culture. They should not just try to read through the intention of the author but reject it if they find it objectionable but Iser feels that at times the effect on the reader is much later and this is true of a novel as well as poetry. Both however agree that literature affects the reader. Woolf, Arnold and Eliot all three agree that the individual writer is influenced by the literary tradition but they disagree on the