Iser, Wolfgang ‘s concept for the reader a literary work appears to be written for, or seems to invite (as opposed to the actual reader of the work). The implied reader is assumed to be both sympathetic and receptive to the text’s strategies. By the same token, the implied reader---in contrast to the actual reader---has no ideological ‘baggage’ that might interfere with the text’s schemes. The concept clearly owes a debt to Wayne Booth’s prior concept of the implied author and can be usefully compared to Fish, Stanley’s later notion of the interpretive community. Further Reading: R. Holub Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction (1984).