Reader Response Theory

1. Prepared By
Muhammad Khan
Qadir Khetran
Abdul Latif

2.  MK… Reader Response Theory emerged in 20th
century.
 Primary focus on reading.
 It is text based not author based.
 Also called Affective Fallacy

3.  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

4.  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

5. .
 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”

6. .
 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?

7. .
 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.

8.  MK… Acknowledged importance of text and reader.
 Text relationship with reader.
 Reality exists in readers mind

9.  L… Reader extracts the meaning through
 Experiencing
 Hypothesizing
 Exploring
 synthesizing

10.  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.

11.  MK… Focuses on readers’ responses to literary
texts.
 
 Stanley Fish
 Wayne Booth
 Louise Rosenblatt
 RR didn’t receive much attention until 1970s

12. 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.

13.  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)

14. .
MK…Reader is necessary third party in the
relationship that constitutes the literary work.
 Text
 Reader
 Author

15.  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.

16. .
 Q… Kinds of Reader Response Theorists
 Individualists
 Experimenters
 uniformists

17. .
 MK… Work is not fully created until the readers:
assimilate it
 actualize it
 In light of their own knowledge and experience.

18.  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”.

19. L…

20. Q…

21. MK…
 Initial emotional response
 Interpretive
 Analysis
 Questions
 Summary
 Arguing with author (believability of text)
 Intertextuality
 Rethinking one part of text after reading another.

22. .
 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.

23. .
Q… Each individual reads literary work for
herself/himself Draws on past experiences
 Molds new experiences from new text

24. 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?

25. .
 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.

26. .
 Q… Knowledge acquired between first and second
reading of text,
 personal experiences that have occurred,
 change in mood between two encounters
 Change in purpose

27. MK… Efferent Reading for information
Telephone book
 History text
 Aesthetic Reading for pleasure
 Emotional focus Literature

28.  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)

29.  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.

30. .
MK… Text acts as blueprint Corrects our
miss-interpretations when we go back and re-read
 Acts as guide to self-correct

31. L… broadening the horizon of mind .
 Multiple interpretation.
 Dependence on the teachers is discouraged.
 Students trust their own responses

32. BENEFITS CONT…..
 L… Students ability of responsibility and
authority is increased.
 Personal responses are valued
 Help reader to become better and critical
reader

33.  Q… Not every interpretation may be valid.
 Students can also go beyond the interpretation level.
 Students can also disagree.

34.  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.

36.  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)