Abstract:

In this paper, I will try to reveal the problematic relation of fiction with extra-textual reality by focusing on Wolfgang Iser’s notion of repertoire. Iser defines repertoire as the familiar elements that are involved in the text. The fictional texts accommodate familiar elements, but when they represent these elements, they do this through putting into question their meaning and validity by presenting them to the reader as themes in themselves by means of de-pragmatization. Through the process of de- pragmatization literary works negates the habitual dispositon of the reader and forces her to reflect on this very dispositon. At the end of this process, the reader may be constrained to re-construct her dispositon and her understanding of reality. Thus, the literary work does not represent the extra-textual world by merely replicating it, but by re-shaping and augmenting it. My aim here is to show that Iser’s theory equips us with a fruitful theoretical frame for understanding literature as a medium that has the power to change what we call the extra-textual reality.

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