Abstract
Regarded as a Bildungsroman, John Fowes's The Magus has been widely analyzed by different approaches including myth criticism, feminist criticism, psychological criticism, formalist criticism, and reader-response criticism. However, none of these researches does detailed analysis of the relation among the author, the reader, the characters and the text. They neither examine how the four parts communicate with one another and how they exercise their freedom in the processes of reading and writing, nor do they discuss the extent of the freedom the four roles are allowed to exercise. In order to cope with these undealt issues, this thesis focuses on the author’s “politics of seduction” and the reader’s response to it, and supplements the notion of "limited freedom" of the author, the reader, the characters and the text, in the framework of Iser’s reader-response theory and John Fowles’s idea of “limited freedom.” There are three levels to investigate the dialogic relations among the author, the reader, the characters and the text. The first level is between Fowles and the reader, in which Fowles plays a role as a surrogate author who uses Conchis and Urfe as the “surrogate author” and the “surrogate reader” for the reader in an attempt not only to transmit his discourse but also hopes that the reader realizes the “politics of seduction” used by Conchis on Urfe and makes his response to Fowles’s strategy. Taking the hints from Fowles, watching and experiencing the adventures of the characters, the reader judges the characters’ behaviors and makes interpretation of the text. The second level, also the main part of this thesis, is between Conchis the surrogate author and Urfe the surrogate reader. Conchis employs such techniques of stories within stories, masques and the open-ending to attract Urfe to take part in the “godgame.” Being trapped into the godgame, while Urfe feels cheated and frustrated, he realizes his mistakes and decides to change to a person who can tell love from sex. The third level is between Fowles as the surrogate author and all the characters as the surrogate readers. Conchis, Alison, Julie, June and so on with another kind of politics of seduction offer either true or misleading information to Urfe in order to seduce him to be confused about “lie upon lie” and to see the “truth.” When they do so, they not only attract Urfe to take part in the godgame but also play the role as the surrogate reader when they figure out the implications each other and present one perspective of The Magus. In other words, all the characters are Fowles’s surrogate readers. With the support of Iser’s theory of “implied reader,” “wandering viewpoint,” and “synthetizing activity,” the three kinds of interplay mentioned above illustrate that the author, the reader, the characters and the text all play active roles in the reading process. They have their own ways to express their discourses and ideas. Paradoxically, their voices influence and contend with one another, and their freedom is thus limited. In consequence, the author, the reader, the characters and the text, sharing limited freedom, are indispensable roles in reading and writing The Magus.