READER RESPONSE THEORY

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE THEORY

• OVERVIEWREADER-RESPONSE THEORYQUICK REFERENCE A VIEW OF LITERARY INTERPRETATION
ASSOCIATED WITH THE AMERICAN CRITIC STANLEY FISH. IT HOLDS THAT MEANING DOES NOT
RESIDE IN THE TEXT, BUT IN THE MIND OF THE READER. THE TEXT FUNCTIONS ONLY AS A CANVAS
ONTO WHICH THE READER PROJECTS WHATEVER HIS OR HER REACTIONS MAY BE. THE TEXT IS A
CAUSE OF DIFFERENT THOUGHTS, BUT DOES NOT PROVIDE A REASON FOR ONE INTERPRETATION
RATHER THAN ANOTHER. THE THEORY CHIMES IN WITH MUCH IN POSTMODERNISM, BUT THREATENS
TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF THE FACT THAT THERE IS SUCH A THING AS LEARNING TO READ, ALSO
THAT A SIGN SUCH AS ‘SHARP BEND’ DOES NOT ONLY CAUSE SOME PEOPLE TO EXPECT A SHARP
BEND, BUT GIVES THEM GOOD REASON TO DO SO. SEE ALSO INDETERMINACY OF TRANSLATION.
 FAMOUS PEOPLE BEHIND THE THEORY
• ALTHOUGH LITERARY THEORY HAS LONG PAID
SOME ATTENTION TO THE READER'S ROLE IN
CREATING THE MEANING AND EXPERIENCE OF A
LITERARY WORK, MODERN READER-RESPONSE
CRITICISM BEGAN IN THE 1960S AND '70S,
PARTICULARLY IN THE US AND GERMANY, IN
WORK BY NORMAN HOLLAND, STANLEY FISH,
WOLFGANG ISER, HANS-ROBERT JAUSS,
ROLAND BARTHES, AND OTHERS. IMPORTANT
PREDECESSORS WERE I. A. RICHARDS, WHO IN
1929 ANALYZED A GROUP OF CAMBRIDGE
UNDERGRADUATES' MISREADINGS; LOUISE
ROSENBLATT, WHO, IN LITERATURE AS
EXPLORATION (1938), ARGUED THAT IT IS
IMPORTANT FOR THE TEACHER TO AVOID
IMPOSING ANY "PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS
ABOUT THE PROPER WAY TO REACT TO ANY
WORK"; AND C. S. LEWIS IN AN EXPERIMENT IN
CRITICISM (1961).
 HOW TO CRITIC USING THE THEORY
• READER RESPONSE CRITICISM IS THE FOCUS AND ANALYSIS OF THE READERS EXPERIENCE IN READING A TEXT.
PROPONENTS OF THIS SCHOOL OF THOUGHT BELIEVE “WHAT A TEXT IS CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM WHAT
IT DOES”. THIS IS IN OPPOSITION TO WHAT NEW CRITICS BELIEVED ABOUT A TEXT, BECAUSE THEY VIEWED THE
WORK AS “AN ISOLATED AESTHETIC OBJECT WITH A SINGLE MEANING”. READER RESPONSE CRITICS SHARE
TWO MAIN BELIEFS: “(1) THAT THE ROLE OF THE READER CANNOT BE OMITTED FROM OUR UNDERSTANDING
OF LITERATURE AND (2) THAT 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”. THIS
GIVES THE READER MORE INFLUENCE IN THE MEANING OF THE TEXT COMPARED TO OTHER CRITICAL LITERARY
THEORIES AND IT TURNS THE TEXT INTO AN EVENT RATHER THAN AN OBJECT. AND BECAUSE OF THE
DIFFERENCES IN PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES, KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS, MOODS, AND PURPOSE FOR READING A TEXT
THEY WILL INTERPRET DIFFERENT MEANINGS FROM THEIR READING, AS EVIDENCED BY THE “THE HOUSE
PASSAGE” EXPERIMENT.
• TYSON GOES ON TO ILLUMINATE FIVE DIFFERENT READER RESPONSE THEORIES OUT OF THE
GAMUT OF OPINIONS THAT “RANGE FROM THE BELIEF THAT THE LITERARY TEXT IS AS ACTIVE
AS THE READER IN CREATING MEANING TO THE BELIEF THAT THE TEXT DOESN’T EXIST AT ALL
EXCEPT AS IT IS CREATED BY READERS”TRANSACTIONAL READER-RESPONSE THEORY
CHAMPIONED BY LOUISE ROSENBLATT ARGUES THE TEXT AND THE READER “ARE EQUALLY
IMPORTANT” . IT’S HER GOAL TO ANALYZE THE TRANSACTION BETWEEN THE READER AND
TEXT TO DETERMINE THE RANGE OF AVAILABLE MEANINGS. SHE DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN
THE EFFERENT, OR INFORMATIONAL ASPECT OF THE TEXT, AND THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE.
• AFFECTIVE STYLISTICS ARGUE “THE TEXT [IS NOT] AN OBJECTIVE, AUTONOMOUS ENTITY- IT
DOES NOT HAVE A FIXED MEANING INDEPENDENT OF READERS- BECAUSE THE TEXT CONSISTS
OF THE RESULTS IT PRODUCES, AND THOSE RESULTS OCCUR WITHIN THE READER” .
PROPONENTS OF THIS THEORY ANALYZE “THE MENTAL PROCESSES PRODUCED BY SPECIFIC
ELEMENTS IN THE TEXT”. THROUGH A VERY SLOW AND DELIBERATE READING OF WHAT THE
TEXT DOES.
 SAMPLE STORY UNDER THE THEORY
The Little Black Boy
BY WILLIAM BLAKE

My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:

But I am black as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: there

God does live And gives his light,
and gives his heat away.
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face Is but a cloud,
and like a shady grove.
 THAT’S ALL
THANK YOU!