The Simple and Initial Literary Reading Its Characterization, Importance, and Power

Abstract The most elaborate studies of literary reading originate from an initial simple and direct reading of the works. However, this initial reading is rarely highlighted by these sophisticated analyses. Through the perspectives on literary reading proposed by I.A. Richards, W. Iser, M. Picard, and J. Derrida, this article reconstructs the simple and initial reading implied by their theories. This reconstruction is based on an observation: contrary to the explicit claims of these theories, such readings neither involve an appropriation of the work nor, as deconstruction suggests, a form of indeterminacy. The simple and direct reading has its own phenomenology, which is described here using the theories of Markus Gabriel and his concepts of “sense” and “field of sense.”