چکیده:
“A Woman with My Eyes”, a short story by Houshang Golshoiri, the prominent short story writer and the novelist, seems to well adjust the framework of reader response criticism, Iser’s theories regarding reader’s active role in the incessant reproduction of meaning in particular. Previously the reader was expected to unlock the predetermined door of the meaning which was presented by the
author; however, currently he/she is believed to be a participant who critically takes part in coming up with the “many truths” or in other words, the interpretations offered by the text. Iser in this respect argues the fact that the more the texts fails the preconceptions and the expectations of the reader, the more it has taken the chance to live on. Otherwise, if it rigidly sticks to the “one right” interpretation which is exclusively the author’s, it is more likely to fail the test of time. The meanings are in fact produced through all the contradictions and ailures that the text generously provides the reader with. Concerning Iser’s aforesaid theories, “A Woman with My Eyes” is a text which is filled with many gaps for the reader to give him/her the chance to be a part of the story telling process. The reader is constantly demanded to read between the lines and accordingly to raise expectations in order to form the ultimate source of meaning; nonetheless, the failures occur when the reader realizes the fact that the meaning he/she has just decided on, was not the final interpretation and here the reproduction of the meaning once more takes place. This story is abundant with fragmentary sentences which largely rely on the reader to see to the completion
of the unfinished lines and fill in the gaps through activating his/her imagination so that the understanding of the text is cyclically born and dead.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Previously the reader was expected to unlock the predetermined door of the meaning which was presented by the author; however, currently he/she is believed to be a participant who critically takes part in coming up with the "many truths" or in other words, the interpretations offered by the text.
Keywords: Golshiri, Reader-Response Criticism, Meaning, Active Reader, Iser, Text realization, Imagination, Interpretation, Failed Preconceptions and Expectations, Trivial Things, Gaps, Contradictions, Identification, Reader’s Background, Sympathy.
A point of primary importance regarding the aforesaid theory of the text’s success to fail the readers’ expectations is the fact that the reader, based on his/her prior information about the male-author of this story, supposes the narrator to be a male figure; however, in the course of the story we come to realize that the narrator is a woman, named "Fatemeh".
Relevantly, another issue referring to frustrating the reader’s expectations regards the tense of the story which, more frequently than not, is "past" ; nevertheless, what is unanticipated to the reader is the present tense of the verbs in the middle of her past narrating the story: she abruptly changes the tense to present and through this the reader is implicitly told that she is definitely not writing to the man he is recounting the story to; in contrast, she is telling the story in person and her addressee is listening, not reading.
This is also true for Golshiri’s short story where the reader is to read between the lines to realize the intended turn of event in the story which is the narrator’s blindness: I don’t know if you’ve exaggerated, but as you said I’m beautiful; I’ve got a kind of innocent beauty."