In the first instance, we have the "real" reader, known to us by his documented reactions; in the second, we have the "hypothetical" reader, upon whom all possible actualizations of the text may be projected.Wolfgang Iser "Readers and the Concept of the Implied Reader"
Time to jump on the roller coaster! What about the critics we've read so far has been most stimulating?
My answer: Wolfgang Iser. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought so either.
Like many a poor college student, I go for the new-to-me style textbook; the ones that come with a large yellow "Used" sticker on them. The impressionable student who had the pleasure of devouring the fourth edition of Donald Keesey's Contexts for Criticism before I got my fingers on it took the time to highlight exactly two pages - the first two pages of Iser's essay.
So what is so stimulating about this essay about the readers who populate reader-response criticism? Just that, the readers. Normally I'm not into vast labeling and stereotyping - but it has it uses. (Besides, doesn't a label like superreader inspire greatness? And the doll comes with his own bookmark! No, but in all seriousness . . .) Iser doesn't stop at the superreader; he sticks to his guns and throws a few more labels at his audience.
Like all label systems, there are those out there that just don't fit neatly under the umbrella title. What I liked is that Iser doesn't seem bothered by this fact, because his labels aren't intended to cover the real-life, sit-down-with-book-in-hand readers. That is one of the reasons his text is so effective - it puts on the labels without the worry of actually labeling anything real.
Iser gives us the concepts and sticks to them - making an almost cheet sheet for anybody interested in reader-response - talk about stimulation!