Mashchenko O. The Concept and the Category of the Reader in the works of J. Barth and D. Barthelme at the end of the 20th century.

The object - J. Barth's book "On with the Story. Stories" and D. Barthelme's late writings from collected stories "Amateurs", "Great Days" "60 Stories", "40 Stories". The research presented focuses on intraliterary aspect of the category of the reader as it is reflected in American postmodernist literature at the end of the 20th century in the works of prominent writers - John Barth and Donald Barthelme. The method is based on the analysis of history of literature combined with the philological analysis of the texts. The emphasis is laid on the growing concern of the writers with pragmatics and reader's involvement in the creative process of text deconstruction. The literary works of the writers are analyzed in the context of resonant literary theories to which they respond in a variety of ways, as well as in broad literary historical context. The analysis of J. Barth and D. Barthelme's writings reveals the dynamic totality of narrative principles which provoke reader's polyvalent response and foreground the innovative genre strategy - the formation of non-ending narrative as an alternative to twice-told stories and the stories of reader's versions as an alternative to mimetic short stories. They call for new ways of reading and for a redefinition of both the narrative and the cultural logic of fiction. The sphere of application - education, practical literary translation.