Reading Words into Worlds: Phenomenological Mimesis of Givenness in the Novel

Reading Words into Worlds asks how it is that reading a novel can feel in some ways like being-in-a-world. The book explores how novels give themselves to readers in ways that mimetically resemble our phenomenological reception of given beings in reality. McReynolds refers to this process as phenomenological mimesis of givenness, and he draws on the phenomenological philosophy of Husserl, Heidegger, and Jean-Luc Marion to explore how masterful novels can make reading ink marks on a page feel like seeing things, feeling things, and meeting (even loving) others. McReynolds blends rigorous phenomenological study with a personable style, first laying out his theory in detail and then applying that theory through close studies of his reading experiences of four British realist masterpieces: Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Eliot’s Middlemarch, and Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. Ultimately, this book offers a grounded phenomenology of novel-reading, illuminating what gives novels such power to not only thrill readers--but to change them.

J. Clayton McReynolds received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Baylor University. He currently teaches literature, history, speech, and writing at Arma Dei Academy. His research interests include the phenomenology of reading, realism, and the rise of the novel, and his work has been published in Dickens Studies Annual and The Journal of Inklings Studies.