Reader Response Theory Reader-response theory identifies the reader as an affective agent who imparts real exist-ence and life to the work, completing its meaning through interpretation. Reader- response criti-cism argues that literature should be viewed as art in which each reader creates his or her own-most likely unique, text-related performance. I am using Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish’s takes on Reader Response for my study. Iser’s Theory of Reception and Transactional Reader Response Theory
Fish’s Reader Response Criticism is composed of two interdependent ideas: first, that the meaning of texts is shaped by the reading experience itself, and second, that these meanings cannot be judged to be correct or incorrect, but merely belonging to one “interpretive community” or another. The first idea may be identified as the executive aspect of Reader Response Criticism because it analyzes the act of reading, while the second idea is the epistemological aspect of the theory because it circumscribes
Chapter II Literature Review Reader Response Criticism Literary criticism is an activity of natural human response to the literature. Endraswara (2003, p.116) said that literary work is a phenomenon which is concrete by the reader. The statement is in accordance with the theory of reader response which focuses on the activity of the readers rather than the author or the structure of the text itself. Reader response focuses on the reader and their role in the making of a literary work. The text does
Reader-Response Theory and You Imagine this; you’re but a small child and you were put in an empty sandbox. Your babysitter comes up to you and gives you all these wonderful toys and trinkets, matchbox cars and toy tracks. What do you do with it? Well, in Reader-Response Theory, it’s entirely up to you. Reader-Response Theory says that the reader is just as important as the author who writes the literary work. This theory stresses that readers are active participants in the story and we make their
Reader Response Theory The Reader Response Theory emerged as a reaction against the New Criticism or formalistic approach, which focused on the text, finding all the meaning, the value in it and regarding everything else as extraneous, including readers. Despite the ideas of the Reader Response in the 1920’s, the late Louise Rosenblatt pioneered the Reader Response theory. She was a literary theorist and an English Educator. In her writing, Literature as Exploration written in 1938, she emphasizes
Reader Response to Joyce's The Dead James Joyce's story "The Dead" has a tremendous impact on the readers, especially those who are familiar with the political situation in Ireland at the time about which the Joyce wrote the final story in Dubliners. In exploring the meaning of James Joyce's long short-story, "The Dead", there are many critical approaches to take. Each approach gives readers a lens, a set of guidelines through which to examine and express ideas
Reader-Response on Soldier's Home The initial reaction I received from reading Soldier's Home, and my feelings about Soldier's Home now are not the same. Initially, I thought Harold Krebs is this soldier who fought for two years, returns home, and is disconnected from society because he is in a childlike state of mind, while everyone else has grown up. I felt that Krebs lost his immature years, late teens to early 20's, because he went from college to the military. I still see him as disconnected
Position Paper: Reader-response I read a book the other day. It was a wonderful book called The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I really enjoyed it; it gives the background information on the creation of Middle Earth. In it, Tolkien tells us of Illúvatar, Eä, the Valar and the birth of Elves, Dwarves and Men. But, you know, I don’t think it has anything at all to do with Elves, Dwarves, Men and some god named Illúvatar. I think Tolkien really wanted to write a Biblical
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, readers observe how Robert, a blind guy, alters the narrator’s world view and the respective marked alterations that take place in narrator’s life. The writer of this article explains about this shift of point of view and the enormous change that takes place in the narrator’s life, when he changes from a person who only looks to a man who sees. The explanation is given through the lenses of reader response criticism using subjective reader-response theory represented by David
Reader Response Criticism to Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider) In The Stranger (The Outsider), Albert Camus anticipates an active reader that will react to his text. He wants the reader to form a changing, dynamic opinion of Meursault. The reader can create a consciousness for Meursault from the facts that Meursault reports. By using vague and ambiguous language, Camus stimulates the reader to explore all possibilities of meaning. Camus also intends to shock the reader into rereading