Lectura – O Copie Imperfectă A Operei Literare
Reading - An Imperfect Copy of the Literary Work

Summary/Abstract: The article involves an attempt to analyze and determine the main features of the act of reading. Especially during the last century, the concept of reading became one of the most controversial notion of literary theory. Being understood as a process of decoding the literary message, the particular act of reading has been interpreted in various ways. In general, the approach investigates reading as a way through which the existence of the literary work is revealed. The literary work is not only the experience and the subconscious of the author, it is not limited only to the form or content and it does not represent only the experience and reception of the reader. Literary work lives through reading, however reading does not fully define it, a reader's interpretation is not the equivalent of the literary work itself, because reading is personal and variable, but literary creation is unique and static. Also, the approach emphasizes the idea that when reading and interpreting the literary work it is necessary to avoid extremes, in other words to avoid platonicism or nominalism in favor of perspectivism. It is noteworthy that the Polish philosopher Roman Ingarden establishes several important differences between the literary work and the readings applied to it. The fact that the reading is only a copy of the absolute literary work is justified by analogy with other similar dichotomies from linguistics („langue” vs. „parole”) and from semiotics (sign vs. meaning).

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