Brühwiler, Claudia FranziskaClaudia FranziskaBrühwiler2023-04-132023-04-132015-02-01https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/10676510.1017/S0021875814001820The novels by Russian immigrant writer Ayn Rand (1905-82) still attract a large readership, not least thanks to a recent renaissance of libertarian ideas in the US. Was it Rand's intention, when writing her novels, to construct political tracts, as many insinuate, or was she indeed trying to imitate her literary idols, as she herself claimed? The answer is complicated due to Rand's own contradictory statements on fiction's impact. Although Rand suggested that it was the reader who gave text meaning, she also believed her books to have an unambiguous message that should have a distinct effect on the reader.enAyn RandlibertarianismObjectivismreader-response theorypolitics and literaturephilosophy and literatureAmerican conservatismjournal article