Vested Reading: Writing the Self through Ethan Frome

Gould, Rebecca Ruth

Abstract

This essay builds on the work of Wolfgang Iser, Janice Radway, E. H. Gombrich, and other theorists of reading to argue for a new approach to the reading encounter, which I call vested reading. Vested reading is a means of engaging with the literary text in a way that reads the self into the book one holds in one's hands while also attending to issues of literary form. I turn to Edith Wharton's novella Ethan Frome and its popular reception in order to flesh out my understanding of vested reading as a practice that realigns life-worlds, while reconstructing the world of the text in ways relevant to readers’ lives.

Citation

Gould, R. R. (2016). Vested Reading: Writing the Self through Ethan Frome. Life Writing, 13(4), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2015.1124742

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 17, 2023
• Journal: Life Writing
• Print ISSN: 1448-4528
• Electronic ISSN: 1751-2964
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 415-430
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2015.1124742
• Keywords: Anthropology of literature; reader-response theory; Edith Wharton; women’s studies; marriage; divorce; Wolfgang Iser; Janice Radway; E. H. Gombrich