“Implied Author”: Inclusiveness, Definiteness, Constructivity, Transcendentality-A Contemplation of an Outline of Public Intrepetation

Liu Xirong

Shanghai International Studies University, China

ABSTRACT

There has been fierce disputes on the understanding of the "implied author" since Wayne Booth first proposed in his The Rhetoric of Fiction in 1961. As per Booth, the "implied author" is the author's "second self" or an "official scribe" constructed by readers based on the text.Since Booth did not clarify the characteristics of the "Implied Author", there has always been a misunderstanding that there are a thousand "Implied Authors" in a certain text in the eyes of a thousand people. On June, 2017, Chinese scholar Zhang Jiang proposed a term of "Public Interpretation" in his essay An Outline of Public Interpretation. In which, he suggests: "Public Interpretation is an effective and commensurable interpretation based on the premise of universal history, with text as its target, public rationality as its boundary constraint; Public Interpretation are with characteristics of rationality, clarity, commensurability, constructivity, transcendentality, reflectivity". With reference to Zhang’s theory of Public Interpretation, this essay intends to explore the characteristics of "implied author" and points out the "Implied Author" is with characteristics of "inclusiveness, definiteness, constructivity and transcendentality".

KEYWORDS

Implied author, inclusiveness, definiteness, constructivity, transcendentality