Beyond the Cultural Borders of the Dining Room: a Reader-Oriented Approach to A. R. Gurney's The Dining Room

Esraa Jalal Jawad Al-Gawhari

Abstract


A. R. Gurney's The Dining Room is a work basically written to address issues related to the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (henceforth WASP) culture. The work is rich with elements (the structure, the setting, the characters, and the themes), inviting to the WASP audience to interact with it, recognizing their cultural identity. The present study aims at proving that those elements can also endow the text with wider horizons when perceived by other audiences through supporting the symbol of the dining room. The study examines them in an attempt to see their effects on the WASP audience. Then, it views them as factors adding to the text a universal touch. 


Keywords


Reader-Response Criticism, Gurney, The Dining Room, WASP, Culture

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.1p.122

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