 MK… Reader Response Theory emerged in 20th century.

 Primary focus on reading.

 It is text based not author based.
 Also called Affective Fallacy
 L… The literary text possesses no fixed and final
meaning literary meaning is created by the interaction of
the reader and text.
 Role of reader cannot be ignored
 Q… When we refer to something as subjective we mean
that it pertains to the individual(the reader). A subjective
reading of a text is one in which emphasis is placed on
the attitudes, moods, and opinions of the reader.
 When we refer to something as objective we mean that
it pertains to an object(the text) separate from the
individual(the reader). An objective reading of text is one
that is uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.
 Reader response criticism offers a subjective reading of
a text. It refers to anything that regards the self of the
individual as the center of all things
 MK… Attention to reading process emerged
during 1930s as a reaction against the growing
tendency to reject the reader’s role in creating
meaning Principles of New Criticism that dominated.
Timeless meaning of text
 “Text and text alone”
 L… RR critics believe that a reader’s interaction
with the text gives the text its meaning. The text
cannot exist without the reader.
 If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around
to hear it, does it make a noise?
 Q… our life experiences and the communities
we belong to greatly influence our reading of a
text.
 Because each reader will interact with the text
differently, the text may have more than one
valid interpretation.
 MK… Acknowledged importance of text and reader.
 Text relationship with reader.
 Reality exists in readers mind
 L… Reader extracts the meaning through
 Experiencing

 Hypothesizing

 Exploring

 synthesizing
 Q… Two time reading of single text produces great
insight in the reader.
 Text alone is nothing as a unit but it completes identity
after the reader interpretation.
 MK… Focuses on readers’ responses to literary
texts.
 
 Stanley Fish
 Wayne Booth

 Louise Rosenblatt
 RR didn’t receive much attention until 1970s
L… The role of the reader cannot be
omitted from our understanding of literature.
 Readers do not passively consume the
meaning presented to them by an objective
literary text; rather, they actively make the
meaning they find in literature.
 Q… RR examines the reader’s response to a
text as a response to a horizon of expectations,
is meant that there is multiplicity of meanings
of interpretations in a text and these can be
accessed by the reader according to his or her
level or literary competence.

 Ref.. Norman N. Holland, "Unity Identity Text Self" (1975, Tompkins,

Reader-Response Criticism)
MK…Reader is necessary third party in the
relationship that constitutes the literary work.

 Text

 Reader

 Author
 L… in RR, there is an interaction between the
structure and the text and the reader’s
response. It evokes a situation where individual
readers give meaning to the text. This is
because each reader will interact with the text
differently, as the text may have more than one
vivid interpretation.
 Q… Kinds of Reader Response Theorists
 Individualists

 Experimenters

 uniformists
 MK… Work is not fully created until the readers:
assimilate it
 actualize it
 In light of their own knowledge and experience.
 L… “Reader Response Theory is the reader’s response
to literary text. Tyson describes in Critical Theory Today
the five types of Reader Response Theory and the
difference that lie within each”.
MK…
 Initial emotional response
 Interpretive
 Analysis
 Questions
 Summary
 Arguing with author (believability of text)
 Intertextuality
 Rethinking one part of text after reading another.
 L… Analyzes the transaction between reader and text
both the reader and the text are necessary in the
production of meaning. As we read, the text acts as a
stimulus to which we respond feeling, association, and
memories all influence the way we make sense of a
text as we read it.
Q… Each individual reads literary work for
herself/himself Draws on past experiences
 Molds new experiences from new text
MK…
 What does this work mean to me, in my present
intellectual & moral makeup?
 What particular aspects of my life may help me
understand and appreciate the work?
 How can the work improve my understanding
and widen my insights?
 How can my increasing understanding help me
understand the work more deeply?
 L… Even same reader reading same text on two
different occasions will probably produce different
meanings because of so many variables contributing
to our experience of text.
 Q… Knowledge acquired between first and second
reading of text,
 personal experiences that have occurred,
 change in mood between two encounters
 Change in purpose
  MK… Efferent Reading for information
Telephone book
 History text

 Aesthetic Reading for pleasure

 Emotional focus Literature
 L…

2 kinds of meaning every text offers:

Determinate .Facts of textCertain events in plot or
physical descriptions clearly provided by words on page.

 Indeterminate .“gaps” in text such as actions that are

not clearly explained or have multiple explanations allow and
invite reader to create her/his own interpretations

 Ref..Wolfgang Iser, Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary

Anthropology (1993)
 Q… 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.
 MK… Text acts as blueprint Corrects our
miss-interpretations when we go back and re-read
 Acts as guide to self-correct
 L… broadening the horizon of mind .
 Multiple interpretation.
 Dependence on the teachers is discouraged.
 Students trust their own responses
 L… Students ability of responsibility and
authority is increased.
 Personal responses are valued

 Help reader to become better and critical

reader
 Q… Not every interpretation may be valid.
 Students can also go beyond the interpretation level.
 Students can also disagree.
 Q… Reader response theory is the best theory
which make the reader and students to be
active and to analyze a text by their own ways. It
achieved great importance in 19th century and
for students and teachers. It is the most
reliable method of studying and teaching.
 Stanley Fish, "Literature in the Reader: Affective Stylistics"
(1970, Tompkins, Reader-Response Criticism

 Jerome J. McGann, The Beauty of Inflections: Literary

Investigations in Historical Method and Theory (1985)

 Jane P. Tompkins, Reader-Response Criticism (1981)

Tony Bennett, "Marxism and Popular Fiction," Literature and

History 7 (1981)