Who among the following is the author of The Implied Reader and The Act of Reading?

The correct option is Wolfgang Iser.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

1. Wolfgang Iser and Reader-Response Theory:
Wolfgang Iser (1926–2007) was an influential German literary scholar and theorist. Along with Hans Robert Jauss, he founded the Constance School of reception aesthetics, which shifted the focus of literary analysis from the author and the text itself to the interaction between the text and its reader.

2. Breakdown of the Works:
- The Implied Reader (1972): In this pioneering work, Iser introduces the concept of the "implied reader." Unlike a real, historical reader, the implied reader is an active role or model constructed by the text itself, containing the pre-structuring necessary for a literary work to be understood and interpreted.
- The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response (1976): In this follow-up book, Iser details how the reading process actually works. He argues that texts contain "gaps" or "indeterminacies" (spaces where the text is silent or ambiguous). The reader must actively fill in these gaps using their imagination and expectations, meaning that the literary work is co-created through the dynamic interaction between the text and the reader.

3. Distinguishing the Other Options:
- Roland Barthes: A prominent French structuralist/post-structuralist theorist who wrote the famous essay "The Death of the Author" and books such as S/Z and Mythologies.
- Stanley Fish: An American literary critic who championed reader-response criticism in the United States, famous for his concept of "interpretive communities" and the book Is There a Text in this Class?.
- Hans Robert Jauss: A German colleague of Iser at the Constance School, best known for his reception theory focusing on the historical "horizon of expectations" rather than the phenomenological process of reading itself.