The reader's role in the fiction of Menán du Plessis

摘要

The reception theory' of Wolfgang Iser is used to explore the effects of the differences in the narration of Du Plessis' novels. The chief differences are the degree of consciousness with which the reader engages in meaning-making and the level at which the reader encounters the major enigma on which the larger interpretation of each novel rests. Also considered are some implications of the analogy, to which my interpretation leads, between narrative form and Du Plessis' judgement of her world.