Isel stories: Your memories and experiences are in demand!

Isel stories: Your memories and experiences are in demand!

The Isel, the impressive glacial river in East Tyrol, represents a special connection to nature for many people. Called by environmental lawyer Johannes Kostenzer and the Dolomitenstadt editorial team, numerous residents and visitors share their emotions and memories of the Isel in the form of poems, songs and videos. Among the submissions is a beautiful poem by Renate Payr that captures the magical atmosphere on the river and describes the river with the introductory words: “Dreaming cloud ships in the blue sky.” A contribution from Rosemarie Ohlmann, who contributed the song to the Iselsong, and a touching video from Robert Rindler, who often spends time on the banks of the Isel with his grandchildren, also show the personal connection many people have to this natural jewel. These contributions impressively illustrate the feeling the Isel evokes in people who live near it or visit it dolomitenstadt.at reported.

Wolfgang Iser and the reading process

The consideration of Isel as a source of inspiration also reflects the thoughts of the literary scholar Wolfgang Iser, whose theories on reading were presented in his 1970 lecture “The Affective Structure of the Text” and in later works such as “The Implicit Reader” and “The Act of Reading”. Iser describes the reading process as an active and creative process in which the reader not only consumes passively, but also creates his own dimension of the text, which arises through the interaction between the text and the reader's imagination. This dynamic allows the reader to fill in the gaps and unwritten implications of the text themselves, creating a personal connection to what they are reading.

Particularly important is the aspect of the unexpected twists and turns that arise while reading. The expectations themselves are constantly modified and challenged through reading, which underlines Iser's statements about the very human aspect of reading: the search for consistency and understanding and balancing between different perspectives are central points. These statements show that the act of reading not only concerns the understanding of literature, but also reflects deeper levels of human thinking, as in literacy.org is presented. This makes the reading process visible as a mirror of ourselves and our experiences, which helps us to better understand not only literary texts, but also the world around us.