This paper explores the dynamic interplay between author and reader in the creation of literary meaning, framed through a pragmatic and dialogic lens. Drawing on the theories of Mey, Bakhtin, Barthes, and Ryan, it examines how writing functions as a process of seduction and co-creation, in which the reader is both guided by and actively reconstructs the author’s textual world. Concepts such as immersion, interactivity, deixis, and focalization are discussed as pragmatic mechanisms that enable the reader’s participation in meaning-making. Through examples from Trollope, Cortázar, Austen, and Tolstoy, the study demonstrates how voice, perspective, and linguistic cues orchestrate a multilayered dialogue between text, author, and reader. Ultimately, literary communication emerges as a social act grounded in shared consciousness and pragmatic cooperation, where texts come to life only through the reader’s engaged response.

Pragmatics, Reader-response, Co-creativity

Austen, J. (1947). Northanger Abbey (Original work published 1810). London: Oxford University Press.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1992). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (M. Holquist, Ed.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1994). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (V. W. McGee, Trans.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Eds.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Bal, M. (1985). Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Banfield, A. (1982). Unspeakable Sentences: Narration and Representation in the Language of Fiction. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Barthes, R. (1977). Image, Music, Text (S. Heath, Trans.). London: Fontana Press.

Cortázar, J. (1985). Historia con migalas [A story of spiders]. In Deshoras. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana.

Gorayska, B., & Mey, J. L. (1996). Cognitive Technology: In Search of a Humane Interface. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Mey, J. L. (1992). When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Mey, J. L. (1994). Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Mey, J. L. (2000). When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics (2nd ed.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Morson, G. S., & Emerson, C. (1990). Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Ryan, M.-L. (2001). Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Tolstoy, L. (1962). Anna Karenina (R. Edmonds, Trans.). London: Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1889).

Trollope, A. (1994). Barchester Towers. London: Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1857).