| Abstract [eng] |
This master thesis examines the role of the reader in Olga Ravn’s novel “De ansatte”. It aims to demonstrate how certain elements in the text activate the reader’s response and if the reader can become a co-creator. Since the novel originated as the writer’s response to an art installation by Lea Guldditte Hestelund, the theoretical approach for this thesis was based on phenomenology and reader response theory. The analysis was based on the analytical practices inspired by reader response theory and Gerard Genette's classification of transtextual relations. The analysis demonstrates, how the formal elements of the text, such as language, style or graphics, help activate the reader's response to highlight important thematic elements, and how intertextual relations consolidate these elements. During the analysis, two main oppositions emerge in the novel: work and art, which are formally represented by corporate jargon and poetic language. The first depersonalises and annihilates, the second personalises and liberates. Red herrings, ambiguities and other playful elements in the text also highlight the entrenched anthropocentric perception of the world, from which one can escape only through art and creativity. The analysis also reveals the significance of collaboration in the creative process, which opposes the traditional image of a single creator. The phenomenological approach used in the thesis dictates further possibilities for analysis through the lens ecocriticism or transhumanism. |
