Textual design and moral response in three novels by Mordecai Richler.

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the effects of the design strategies Mordecai Richler employs in three novels--Son of a Smaller Hero (1955), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959), and St Urbain's Horseman (1971)--with a view to exploring his thematic concern with morality in the modern world. After briefly examining some of the inadequacies of an exclusively text-centred critical approach to Richler's fiction--a critique informed by the writings of Wolfgang Iser--the thesis outlines and then applies an alternative reading model that emphasizes the role of textual design and reader response in the production of literary meaning. The Introduction outlines Iser's theories of the reading process and the role of the implied reader. The ensuing three chapters explore the effects on readers of the design strategies of the three novels. These novels form a group that traces the life of one man, exploring the various moral dilemmas he faces on the journey from youth to adulthood. Thus, Richler's novels encourage readers to formulate and to defend their own moral positions in relation to the fictional worlds and characters while reflexively enacting the difficulty of making moral judgments.