The Reader at Work: The Role of the Text and Text-Receiver in the Construction of the Protagonist of a Novel

Abstract

The study investigates the influence of self-concepts on the interpretation of literary texts. Following the reader's response approach (László, 1999), the fruition of a narrative can be described as a process in which the reader re-constructs the “reality” represented by the author through his/her self schemas. An Italian novel, “Sostiene Pereira” by Antonio Tabucchi, was chosen to explore the potentiality of this perspective. This novel is a short tale completely centred on the vicissitudes of the main character. First a text analysis was conducted to explore the structure of Pereira's self, revealing ten dimensions. Based on these categories, a questionnaire was constructed and administered to participants to assess their self-concepts. After reading the whole book the participants evaluated the protagonist's self on the same dimensions. Results support the expectations that Pereira's self profile nearly overlaps that of each reader, showing a shared representation of the character colored by slight individual differences.