Bretan, Charles Paul

Over the years the study of literature has shifted its attention from the author to the text to the reader and back again--all this in an attempt to understand what a text means and how that meaning got into the text in the first place. Wayne C. Booth's rhetorical model of interpretation, while excellent in its detailing rhetorical techniques and their effects on the reader, ignores both the active role readers play in interpretation and the creative power of language. This thesis takes a post-transactional approach to The Turn of the Screw and Lolita in an attempt to expose two blind spots in Booth's rhetorical criticism: his refusal to allow the reader into the creative, interpretive process, and his insistence on the author's use of clear, unambiguous language to produce a single reading of his text.