Summary: | This study explored the reading-subjects relationship to reading and texts, and if this relationship, through metaphors, could be compared to that of a parasite or a symbiosis. In other words the question that was asked was; can the reading-subjects relationship to the written text be compared to that of a parasite and it’s host, or is the relationship more similar to that of a symbiosis? The method for the study has been to find and compare different views on reading and text, that has been presented by a series of different theoreticians. The author’s whose work the study is based upon are Anders Johansson and his studies concerning “good” and “evil”, Martin Borgs work on propaganda and Iser Wolfgangs book The implied reader. The analysis is also based of the worldview presented by the characters in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. In conclusion, the parasitic and symbiotic metaphor, could be applied and seen in each off the works listed above, it is however not possible to fully say the relationship is closer to one or the other. Each text works in a network of other texts with all different background and intentions. To be able to fully understand the relationship – further studies must be made.
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