THE DEVELOPMENT OF A STRUCTURALIST POETICS OF READING: FROM RUSSIAN FORMALISM TO ROLAND BARTHES

The most important development now taking place in literary theory is a renewed emphasis on the role of the reader in relation to the literary work, and structuralism has played a very important role by developing its own view of the reader. Studies of reader theory, however, generally deal with recent German, French, and American literary criticism, not usually with structuralism, and never with Russian formalism. If they deal with Roland Barthes at all, it is with his most recently published work, not with his earlier writing. In addition, critics who deal with the structuralist movement mention Russian formalism as a kind of precursor; however, they emphasize the linguistic origins of both movements and do not deal with reader theory.;This study of the development of the structuralist poetics of reading from its Russian formalist roots in the writings of Shklovsky, Tomaschevsky, and Eichenbaum through the major structuralist studies of the literary narrative by Todorov, Genette, and Barthes shows that early formalist writings on "perceptible form" and "literariness" bear the seeds of later structuralist theories of reading. Similarly, a review of Barthes' earlier works, The Elements of Semiology and "The Structuralist Activity," shows that they contain important statements about how the reader makes sense of a literary work. There may be some slight shifts of emphasis between formalism and structuralism and between early and later Barthes, but not radical breaks, as certain critics of structuralism imply.;Todorov, Genette, and Barthes, building on formalist foundations, erect a theory of reading that posits an active, creative reader by viewing the literary work as a system, by emphasizing the how rather than the what of the text, by showing how a multiplicity of meanings is possible within a literary work, and by studying conventions of writing and reading and the codes which writers and readers bring with them to the literary work. Their poetics of reading contributes seminal and useful theories to scholars of literature to help us better understand the role of the reader of a literary work and ways in which readers go about making sense of what they read.;This study attempts to demonstrate (1) that reader-oriented theory is integral to the structuralist approach to literature; (2) that structuralism has contributed to literary theory a systematic framework for studying qualitative aspects of literature; and (3) that structuralism is part of an ongoing literary history.