Glossary of Literary Theory

by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown

Implied reader:

A term used by Wolfgang Iser to describe a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader

"embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect --

predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself.

Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the

text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader." (See also Constance

School of Reception Aesthetics, Reader-response criticism, Reception theory.)