Literature as interaction : a systems model of literary composition and reception

Abstract

can it be reduced to a selected element or types of elements. For example, a reduction of literary meaning to a single factor: be it the socio -economic conditions in which the text is produced (as in Marxist criticism), the author's intimate personal history (as in Freudian criticism), the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of the text itself(as in Criticism), or the reader 's subjective, associative response to the text (as in deconstructive criticism), betokens a fragmentary and therefore reductionist approach literary meaning. In an integrative model postulated by systems science the literary process is viewed as consisting of interrelated systems involving the author and reader as autonomous systems3, with their personalities, life hi stories, and literary competences; the text as a linguistic medium of communication possessing its structure; and the socio-cultural environment in which both the author, the reader, and the text are immersed, with every system involved affecting and being affected by all the others'. Systems constituting empirical reality interact Cor are coupled) with one another by exchanging information and energy', the process that of necessity affects all systems involved.