Representations of the Reader, Reality, and the Act of Writing in the Critical Discourse of Narrative Authors

Abstract

This study aims to explore how key elements of the narrative act—namely the reader, reality, and the concept of writing—are represented in the critical discourse of narrative authors, focusing on the novelist’s own perspective, which often remains absent from traditional critical treatments. By examining novelists’ conscious views of these shared narrative components, the research argues that such awareness deepens our understanding of the text, clarifies the formative role of these elements in its construction, and helps readers develop sound strategies for reading, alongside preserving the original pleasure of reading that first attracted most readers to fiction. Through a critical reading of selected novelists’ reflections on writing, reality, and its complexities, the study challenges common prejudices that reduce narrative to mere storytelling with no value beyond entertainment, or that view the novel as easily written and lacking philosophical depth or social impact. Structured into an introduction and three main axes—the novelist’s relationship with the reader, the novelist’s concept of writing, and the novelist’s stance toward reality—the research concludes that the reader occupies a central position in the eyes of many authors as a co-producer of meaning and plurality of interpretations. The novelist grants the reader freedom of judgment and expression, relying on the reader’s cultural resources to elevate expectations and enable an active, insightful engagement with the text.