reader-response

criticism
 reader-response

Give me a reaction or specific response

about the following pictures
reader-response
analysis
 definition
Reader-Response as a theory gained prominence in the
late 1960s, that focuses on the reader or audience
reaction to a particular text, perhaps more than the text
itself.

Reader-response theorists recognize that texts do not

interpret themselves. Reader-response theory recognizes
the reader as an active agent who imparts “real
existence” to the work and completes its meaning
through interpretation.
 how it works
Reader-response criticism argues that literature should
be viewed as a performing art in which each reader
creates their own, possibly unique, text-related
performance
Reader Response Criticism focuses on the reader's
psychological experience of reading a text, and how the
reader creates meaning from what the text has given
them as they read.

writing process
Pre-Writing - To find a starting point for
exploring where your personal experience
and the text converge, you will find it
helpful to make a few personal observations
before, during, and after reading the text.
These observations will help you discover
interpretive points for discussion.
·How do I feel about reading this piece?
·What does the title suggest to me?
·Does the work include quotations that I
would like to copy and save?
·What questions would I like to ask the
author?
·What objections can I raise to what I am
reading?
 writing process

Pre-Writing - To find a starting point for

·Where do I experience confusion,
exploring where your personal experience
disagreement, approval, or any other attitude or
and the text converge, you will find it
feeling?
helpful to make a few personal observations
before, during, and after reading the text. ·What experiences does the text bring to
These observations will help you discover mind that I can describe or narrate?
interpretive points for discussion.
 writing process
After reading the text, make short initial responses about the text.

·Consider how you might

MOMENT ·Describe how you feel about action to have acted had you been one
TO the text action of the characters.
MOMENT
·List the things you like about ·List those aspects of it that
SUBJECT the work. Why do you like aspect to bother you. Why do they bother
TO them? aspect you?
SUBJECT
· What else would you like to
SCENE TO ·Write a brief summary of the non sequitur know about the characters or
SCENE text
events?
 writing process
After reading the text, make short initial responses about the text.

·Which of your values,

PERSONAL beliefs, or assumptions does
TO it challenge?
PERSONAL
PERSONAL · What values, beliefs, or
assumptions of your own does
TO this work affirm?
PERSONAL
PERSONAL ·Compose a letter (not to be
sent) to the author or to one of
TO the characters.
PERSONAL
Drafting and Revising
the Reader-Response
Analysis
 INTRODUCTION
In making a reader-response
analysis it is appropriate to
involve your audience in the
introduction to your essay. In
other words, try to provoke a
strong response from your own
reader. One way of doing so is to
begin by recounting an incident
from the work that elicits a
particularly powerful reaction or
quote a passage that holds strong
emotion for most readers
 THE BODY
The core of your paper will
explain how the text controls the
reader’s understanding and
sympathies, identify the personal
material you have put into the
text, and describe how the two
interact to create the text.
 THE BODY
You should explain what resulted when
the text and the reader came together.
Although the text proffers certain
norms or values, it is the reader who
decides whether or to what degree they
should be accepted or rejected. The
critic’s job is to raise meaningful
questions and to look for meaningful
answers.
 THE
CONCLUSION
The conclusion, then, is the place to
pull all the disparate pieces of
information together into
generalizations about the text. It need
not be lengthy, but it should state the
major effects the work has had on a
reader and the causes that produced
those effects.
 THE
CONCLUSION
Finally, the conclusion should include
an evaluation of how effectively the
text elicited the desired responses,
how deeply the reader became involved
in constructing the text, and how the
work was enriched by the mutual
participation of text and reader.