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    Reader-response theory began as a rejection of formalism in the 1970s. It focuses on how readers interact with texts to create meaning rather than searching for an author's intended meaning. Key ideas are that texts have multiple meanings depending on individual readers, reading is a transaction between reader and text that shapes both, and meanings are developed within reading communities. The approach considers how readers respond to and are affected by literature in different ways. While it allows for many valid interpretations, critics argue it risks being too subjective without standards for evaluating readings.

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    Reader-response theory began as a rejection of formalism in the 1970s. It focuses on how readers interact with texts to create meaning rather than searching for an author's intended meaning. Key ideas are that texts have multiple meanings depending on individual readers, reading is a transaction between reader and text that shapes both, and meanings are developed within reading communities. The approach considers how readers respond to and are affected by literature in different ways. While it allows for many valid interpretations, critics argue it risks being too subjective without standards for evaluating readings.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    776 views10 pages

    Week 12 Pragmatic Approach in Literary Analysis - pptx-1

    Uploaded by

    e s t
    Reader-response theory began as a rejection of formalism in the 1970s. It focuses on how readers interact with texts to create meaning rather than searching for an author's intended meaning. Key ideas are that texts have multiple meanings depending on individual readers, reading is a transaction between reader and text that shapes both, and meanings are developed within reading communities. The approach considers how readers respond to and are affected by literature in different ways. While it allows for many valid interpretations, critics argue it risks being too subjective without standards for evaluating readings.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 10

    Reader-Response Approach

    Week 12
    Review

    Work: objective

    Universe: Mimetic

    Writer: Expressive

    Readers:
    Pragmatic
    Background
    Reader-Response Theory began as a rejection of
    Formalism (review meeting 9) in the 1970s
    (actually, even earlier with some books hinting at it
    in the 1930s) and remains influential today.

    Some of the most influential scholars include Stanley


    Fish, Louise M. Rosenblatt, Wolfgang Iser, Hans
    Robert Jauss, Norman Holland, and Elizabeth
    Freund
    MAIN IDEAS
    • Literary texts have multiple meanings
    • Meanings are created by both authors and readers
    • Literature exists only when it is read

    Reader B
    Reader A

    Reader C

    playwright
    MAIN IDEAS
    • Reading is a transaction between reader and text
    • The text affects the reader, and the reader affects the text
    • Meanings are developed and evaluted in and by
    communities
    Quotes
    • Reader-response criticism devotes considerable attention to
    the act of reading itself, particularly in terms of the many
    different ways in which readers respond to literary texts”
    Davis, Todd F. and Kenneth Womack. Formalist Criticism and Reader-response Theory. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. eBook.

    EBSCO Host. 13 Sept 2011 .


    Main Research Questions
    • 1) Do our responses to literary works produce similar readings?
    • 2) Can texts really have as many meanings as readers can
    create?
    • 3) Are some readings better than others? (Davis 51)
    Research Strategies
    • 1) Consider readers' reactions to literature
    • 2) Discover how the interaction of text and reader creates meaning
    • 3) Examine a short literary text phrase-by-phrase to see what reading experience is built into that text
    • 4) See if the sounds/shapes of the words as they appear or are spoken enhance or change the meaning
    of the word/work
    • 5) Compare reader's response to the topic of the story
    • 6) Study criticism to analyze the scholars and/or the reading experience produced by that text
    Positive impacts
    • - Literature points toward actual human situations and feelings
    • - Everyone's reading can be considered
    • - Multiple interpretations are allowed
    • - The work can change in meaning and application over
    time/context
    Negative impacts
    • - Everyone's reading can be considered valid
    • - Multiple interpretations are allowed
    • - The work can change in meaning and application over
    time/context
    • - It is a subjective approach

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