GROUP 4 EAPP READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM.pdf

reader response criticism

1. Reader- Response
Criticism

2. Good Morning!
What is Reader-Response
Criticism?

3. Reader- Response Criticism
A literary theory which focuses on the
individual reader (audience) and their
experience. It allows the reader to relate
to the text emotionally and connect to the
events happening within the text.

4. Reader- Response Criticism
Reader-response criticism
emphasizes that the meaning
of a text is dependent upon the
reader's response to it.

5. Reader- Response Criticism
It asserts that the meaning of a text is
not fixed and objective but rather
subjective and dependent on the
reader's interpretation and response to
it.

6. Subjective vs Objective
Reader Response was a reaction against the
formalist approach that concentrates only on the
text. It is subjective because it takes into
consideration the personality of the reader and the
ways he contributes to the making of the text.
Reading reveals more about the reader's
personality than about the text.

7. The criticism itself can be classified into
four types:
a. Transactional reader-response theory
b. Psychological reader-response theory
c. Subjective reader-response theory
d. Social reader-response theory

8. Transactional reader-response theory
Transactional reader-response theory, led by
Louise Rosenblatt and supported by Wolfgang
Iser, involves a transaction between the text's
inferred meaning and the individual
interpretation by the reader influenced by their
personal emotions and knowledge.

9. PSYCHOLOGICAL reader-response theory
Psychological reader-response theory,
employed by Norman Holland, believes that a
reader's motives heavily affect how they
read, and subsequently use this reading to
analyze the psychological response of the
reader.

10. SUBJECTIVE reader-response theory
Subjective reader-response theory,
associated with David Bleich, looks entirely
to the reader's response for literary meaning
as individual written responses to a text are
then compared to other individual
interpretations to find continuity of meaning.

11. Social reader-response theory
is Stanley Fish's extension of his earlier work,
stating that any individual interpretation of a
text is created in an interpretive community
of minds consisting of participants who
share a specific reading and interpretation
strategy.

12. Examples of reader-response questions:
"What do I personally think that this text means?”
"Have I ever had an experience like this? What did
I learn from it?"
"Have I ever felt the way that the characters in this
text feel?"
"What personal qualities or characteristics do I
have that might be relevant to my reading of this
text?”

13. Examples of reader-response questions:
"Are my morals reflected in this text? How are my
morals the different or the same as those
highlighted in the text?"
"What issues are the most important in the text?
Why do I think these issues are the most
important?"
"What words or phrases are most important to me?
Why?"

14. Overall
Reader Response Criticism seeks to
redefine the reader's relationship to the
text, arguing that readers are not just
passive consumers of a text's meaning,
rather, they create its meaning.

15. Thank you for
listening!