The Teller and the tale
sources of credibility in the short story
pp. 301-306
in: John Deely, Margot D. Lenhart (eds), Semiotics 1981, Berlin, Springer, 1983Abstract
The problem to be considered is that of the basis for the sense of validity in a narrative. Why does a reader accept a story as credible? The willingness of a reader to enter the narrative universe is a complex process, and the function of factors both internal and external to the text. At the most immediate level this complex of factors includes the reader as a member of the culture and as a reader of a particular literature as well. This membership entails awareness of the conventions which must be met by a particular form. A reading begins then, with some knowledge of that to which the text refers, and some expectations of the form the text will take.