What is reader response

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Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Introduction This annotated bibliography presents influential work in the area of reader response theory. General Overview Reader response theory identifies the significant role of the reader in constructing textual meaning.

How to Subscribe Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Jump to Other Articles:. Oxford University Press. If we say, "The Shmoop labradoodle totally ate that cupcake," each individual person reading that sentence will have a different image of the Shmoop labradoodle, of the Shmoop headquarters, and of the cupcake.

Some readers will probably imagine a cute dog, others will imagine a naughty dog, and everyone will try to fill in the blanks to figure out what happened and why. It'll all depend on each individual reader's experience with dogs, cupcakes, and Shmoop. The interpretation each reader has will probably be similar, but each will be slightly different. The big contribution of Reader-Response theorists was to call attention to the importance of the reader in the making of literary meaning.

Reader-Response theorists like to ask questions like: How do we feel when we read a certain poem, or a passage from a novel? Why do we feel that way? How does our psychology affect the way we read literary texts? How does each of us read differently? Only when we ask those questions, these theorists argue, can we truly begin to understand literature. Ever read a book and think, "I'm just not getting this. Am I stupid or something? But in so doing, she is also distancing herself from the text, not fully embracing it or its meaning in her life.

By rebelling against the text, the female reader not only has to understand the point of view of the author and the male audience, but she also has to formulate her own opinions and create a sort of dialogue between the text and herself. Rebelling against the text and the stereotypes encourages an active dialogue between the woman and the text which, in turn, guarantees an active and most likely angry reader response.

I became a resisting reader. Elias, Robert H. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research, Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader. Bloomington: Indiana UP, Hasley, Louis. Iser, Wolfgang. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, Lindner, Carl M. Rosenblatt, Louise M. Literature as Exploration. New York: MLA, Thurber, James. William Vesterman. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, Tompkins, Jane P. Jane P. Skip to main content. Module 4: Literary Analysis. Search for:. Reader-Response Criticism Summary We have examined many schools of literary criticism.

The Purpose of Reader-Response Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work come alive. Just between us: it's complicated.

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