Reader Response Theory

Khadija Khadim
Jawad Khan Niazi
Waqar Azeem
Inam ul Haq
Nuzhat Parveen
Sadaf Nazir
Khawar Hussain (group 3)
Introduction
Emerged in 1930

Primary focus on reading

It is text based not author based

“text and text alone”

Also called as “Affective fallacy”

Leading Proponents
Stanley Fish

Wayne Booth

Louise Rosenblatt
Theoretical Assumption
 Literature is a per formative art and each
reading is a performance.
 The literary text possess no fixed and final
meaning literary meaning is created by the
interaction of the text and reader
 Reader is not passive but active
 Role of reader cannot be ignored
Salient features
 Acknowledged importance of text and reader

 Text relationship with reader

 Reader is 3rd party

 Reality exist in readers mind

 Work is fully created when readers assimilate it

 Text has not one inherent meaning but it

depend on individual interpretation.
Types of responses
 Initial emotional response
 Interpretive

 Analysis

 Question

 Summary

 Arguing with author

 Inter textuality
Text Identity
 Imaginative literature is lived by reader
2 time reading of single text produces
great insight in the reader mind
 Text alone is nothing as a unit but it
completes is identity after the reader
interpretation
Types of Reading
Aesthetic
Afferent
Aesthetic reading for pleasure
emotional focus literature.
Efferent reading for information
telephone book history text.
In reader response theory reading
must be aesthetic rather than
afferent.
Kinds of Meaning in a Text
Determinate
Indeterminate

 Determinate basically the facts in the

text
 Indeterminate are the “gaps” in the
text which is filled by readers
 In RR theory, indeterminate meaning are
more focus
Kinds of Reader
Implied Reader
Actual Reader

 Implied reader finds out the

determinate meaning of the text
 Actual reader fills the gap in the text
and find out the indeterminate meaning of
the text
Techniques of Reading
 Reader extracts the meaning through

Experiencing

Hypothesizing

Exploring

Synthesizing
Benefits
Broaden the horizon of mind
Multiple interpretation
Cultural study
Encourage the students to make
interpretations
Continued….
 Dependence on the teachers is discouraged
 Students trust on their own Responses

 Students ability of responsibility and

authority is increased

 Personal responses are valued

 Help reader to become better critical

reader
limitations
 Not every interpretation may be valid.

 Students can also go beyond the

interpretation levels.

 Students can also disagree and argue with

each others interpretations.
Enhancement of RR
Literature circles

General writing

Peer writing group

Open ended discussion

Reader Response Method Traditional Method

 Enhance Ideas  Singleidea

 Student dependent  Teacher dependent
 Student become  Teacher biasness
tolerant  Discourages
 Produces multiple enhancements of
interpretation ideas
 Better critical reader  No practice of mind

Comparison
Conclusion
 Reader response theory is the best theory
which makes the reader and students to be
active and to analysis a text by their own
ways it achieved great importance in 19th
century and for students and teacher it is
the most reliable method of studying and
teaching