Reader-Response
The Critical Lens of The People!
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Short Journal Entry:
Write a short paragraph that
describes how a piece of music, a
certain smell, or a certain visual
image evokes a strong emotional
response or memory.
Reader Response focuses on the
key issue of what “counts” in literary
study….the text or the reader.
RR is a response to “formalist” or “New Critical”
approaches to literature
• Text is privileged and
contains the “true meaning.”
• Texts are “complete” and
you should not look outside
the text for meaning.
• “True” meanings can be
revealed through close
reading.
• Close reading is best done
by educated literary
snobs…like T.S. Eliot.
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Scary..huh?
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The “Text is Everything” Approach
(Too often the case!)
TEXT:
(Meaning
resides in texts to
be extracted by
readers. All they
must do is take the
book home and
read!)
Student: I am as
dumb as a bag of
rocks!
This leads to an authoritarian hierarchy
which places text, authors,
professors/teachers and book publishers
at the meaning making top… and passive,
bored and lowly students at the bottom.
In opposition to formalist/new
critical stances, RR…
• Sees literature as a “performative act,” like
performing a musical composition, or
performing a play. Reading is “an event.”
– W. Iser believes that literature constrains meaning
but leaves “interpretive gaps” to be filled with the
experiences and background knowledge of the
reader.
• Literature exists only when it is read (the “if a
tree falls and no one hears it” idea).
Reader Response Cont.
• Literature contains no “fixed” or “correct”
meaning. Literary meanings are
“transactional” created by the
transaction between text and reader (L.
Rosenblatt)
• Literary meaning can change given the
“interpretive community” that readers
belong to (S. Fish)
The continuum of RR theory
• Some RR theorists are more “textcentered.” Iser and his “gaps of
meaning” is an example.
Mind the
Gap!
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The Continuum of RR Theory
Is there a text
in this class?
• Some RR theorists are more
“reader-centered.”
• Stanley Fish said, “ ‘Lycidas’
and ‘The Wasteland’ are
different poems only
because I have decided that
they will be.”
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• It is the reader (and that
reader’s interpretive
community) that guides
meaning.
Louise Rosenblatt is a
“central” figure
• Transaction between text
and reader forms “the
poem.” Text and reader are
both important to this
process.
• The “poem” is an entity that
is separate from both text
and reader.
• The “poem” can change
when the reader changes.
(Has big implications for the
role of ELA teachers!)
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Hero
The reader brings to the work
personality traits, memories of
past events, present needs and
preoccupations, a particular mood
of Qu
the moment….these
ickTim e™ andand
a
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cture.
determine
his or
her pi
response
to the peculiar contribution of the
text.
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Questions in RR
• What personal experiences does the text
remind you of?
• What aspects of the story caused you to
reflect? Why?
• What connections did you find yourself
making with other texts that you read?
• Can you make connections to bigger issues
in school, the community, or our world?
• What does this text do to us? Would this
differ if the audience was in a different time or
place?
Caveats
• What can be
some dangers
of strict “readerfocused”
responses to
literature?
A discussion of a slave narrative like this…
I remember one time
when my mom
grounded me…I was
feeling just like a slave!
A discussion of Looking For Alaska…
I know how Alaska
feels…one time my
mom had a really bad
cold and had to stay in
bed. I made my own
dinner that night!
A discussion of Raider’s Night…
I remember one time
my friend pinched me
and called me fat, so I
know how Chris felt!
Strict RR responses that focus
only on the reader…
• Do not allow readers to develop “ethical
respect” for characters or situations that are
much different from their own.
• Develop the false notion that texts can “mean
anything.” Therefore, lit. study is not as
important or robust as other content areas,
like math…brrrrr!
• Do not allow readers to understand that
authors position them to take particular
viewpoints, and the ability to fight those
views.
The Transactive Approach
Reader
Text
Context
Ending thoughts…
• Text and reader are both important in the
meaning-making process.
• Attending to a text--its rules, style, viewpoint,
authorial intent-- is important.
• Teaching and activating critical background
knowledge is crucial for taking advantage of
the literary transaction.
• Literature, like life, is complicated. It contains
multiple and sometimes conflicting
meanings…do not get trapped in the “one
true meaning” idea.