Some thoughts

To be completely honest I haven't quite finished Werther, but I've read a good chunk. I am enjoying it, but I have been getting distracted by some other books I am reading at the same time. (I have begun The Origin of Islam and have found it quite interesting) I agree that Werther is a bit melodramatic. I'm not sure if that is why I have had trouble finishing it though. The sentence structure is fun, and I have thought there were some beautiful lines. An example of a quote I liked but also found a little much... "the solitude in this paradisiacal region is a precious balm to my heart, and the youthful season in all its fullness warms my often shivering heart" I have to get out my notes from critical theory because I am starting to forget what different authors said what. Ben P's who is the who comment is exactly the sort of thing we discussed! Personally, I liked reader response theory which acknowledges that it is impossible to read a text independent of it's context. It also walks a good middle road between claiming the author of the text is the complete and total authority on the work, and giving too much power to the reader. Instead, RR theory (at least I think) would say that the author lays the framework and the reader fills in their interpretation which is built out of the context from which they are reading the work. This kind of makes me think of a spiderweb with all the different authors that a reader has read interacting through that reader. I'm not sure this makes any sense or is what you two meant, but just some thoughts.