Donovan 1

Zach Donovan
Mrs. Williams
English 102
14 July 2014
Objective Summary Essay Quest
In the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, there is an article, Reader Response,
by Roland Greene, where he talks about the reader response criticism, mainly in poetry. Roland
Greene, born 1957, is a scholar of modern literature and Culture of England, and is currently a
Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. In Greenes
introduction, he describes the reader response criticism as works of our own opinions. That the
reader should question how the literary works affects us morally, and what that specific literally
work aims readers to do. He goes on to argue that poetic theory always involves a model of
understanding language, even if the model remains tacit (Greene 1146). Even if a certain
literary work, whether it be a poem, novel, etc., doesnt come right out and say what it is trying
to get across, the reader must look deeper into the meaning of that literary work in order to
understand the authors purpose.
According to the article, instead of directly criticizing a literally work, the reader must
analyze their own reactions to the literary work they are reading. Throughout this article, Greene
reinforces that fact to help the audience better understand how to understand the reader response
criticism. He says: A poem involves a psychological or phenomenological process in which
author and reader interact through a physical text (Greene 1146). He is saying that we can only
Donovan 2

see a poem through our own opinions and perceptions, and we develop these opinions about a
poem by our own human morals and values. According to Greene, we analyze how we feel about
a certain piece of literary work, while other criticisms directly analyze the text of a literary work.
According to the article, while some critics regard individual differences in reader
response as important, others consider differences in response as a result of class differences or a
certain era. Greene says the same thing. While he takes the class differences and the difference
eras into account, he also thinks that the most important thing to focus on is ones individual
differences. While the differences in the classes do greatly affect ones morals and values, it is
important to look at how the direct text makes the audience feel and how the text changes their
perspective on whatever that specific literary work is trying to get across.
In Reader Response by Roland Greene, he explains the difficult criticism that is the
reader response criticism. He explains how the reader response criticism is a formation of our
own opinions and reactions to a certain text. He goes onto say that readers must look deeper into
the text they read to really understand their reactions and form informed opinions. This article
provides the audience with some great insight of the reader response criticism.