Daughter of fortune: Isabel Allende's popularity from a readership perspective

Fanjul-Fanjul, M.C. ORCID: 0000-0002-3736-5148, 2010. Daughter of fortune: Isabel Allende's popularity from a readership perspective. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

The primary aim of this thesis is to explore and critically interrogate Isabel Allende’s popularity cross-culturally in Britain and Spain. It analyses readers’ responses to Allende’s works as well as the discourses surrounding her public representation, an approach that is ‘readerly’ but must also take account of production and text. This approach is intended to further the understanding of Allende’s work which so far has always been analysed from a textual perspective. However, the relationship between Allende’s popularity, her texts, public representation and readers has not been yet analysed in detail.This thesis is innovative in other ways too. Methodologically, it approaches readers through the under studied cultural form of the reading group. It also incorporates a comparative dimension by looking at the reception of Allende in two different cultural contexts: the British and Spanish respectively. Finding out about Allende’s popularity has involved asking readers about their reading experiences as well as analysing the production of discourses around her public representation. Paul Ricoeur’s (1984, 1988) perspective on authorial intentions and readers’ responses to texts helps in understanding the intricacies surrounding what is involved in reading any text. It draws attention to Allende’s and her publishers’ authorial strategies, her ‘strategies of persuasion’ and the specificity of the lives and contexts of British and Spanish reading publics. Equally, this ‘readerly’ approach draws on feminist audience research and primarily on the work of Ien Ang and Janice Radway. Their work with viewers and readers respectively is particularly useful in establishing and developing methodological parameters for the study of reading groups. As a whole, this thesis contributes to the understanding of Allende’s cross-cultural popularity by situating readers at the centre.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Fanjul-Fanjul, M.C.
Date:	2010
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author, and may also be owned by Nottingham Trent University. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the first instance to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:36
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:07
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/349

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