Exploring the relation between literary works and reader reception

implications for moral reflection

Abstract

How can we, perspicuously, explain the relation between a literary text and its interpretation by a reader in a way that supports the hypothesis that literature matters for moral reflection? In this article, based on a critical examination of some anglophone authors, who are more or less engaged in investigations related to the analytic philosophy of language, and who address the relation between philosophy and literature, we propose a distinction between two types of relations: the relation between the literary work and its reception by a reader, and the empirical relation between the reception of the literary work and changes in the reader. For advances in moral reflection, this relation may not be an empirical one. Therefore, we propose a form of explanation for the relation between literary work and its reception by a reader, involving the writer and their literary work, the reader and their interpretative role, and the shared background between writer and reader.