Reader Response Theory

WHAT Readers have different experiences after and while reading a literary work Reached Prominence in : 1970s. Dated back in the very old times when literature it self is founded. Readers give responses or affected by the literary works : Plato, Aristotle. Concentration : readers, works, history, authors, objects / texts ,

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT I.A. RICHARDS Experimenting on the college students’ response on a literary work : Students’ gave different opinions and interpretations

Transaction of meaning : Text –Rader – Meaning HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT LOUISE M. ROSENBLAT Literature as Exploration (1937) :The Readers and the Texts must work together to produce meaning Transactional Experience : the reader and the text produce a new creation, a poem. Poem : the result of an event that takes place during the reading process = aesthetic transaction Transaction of meaning : Text –Rader – Meaning

Assumption readers have active participation in creating meaning. There is transaction of meanings What happens during the reading process? Investigate three factors : The reader : worldview, background, purpose, knowledge of the word, knowledge of the words, etc. 2. The text : various linguistics elements Meaning : interaction of reader and the text

Methodology Structuralism Narratology Phenomenology Subjective cRiticism

Structuralism A reader brings to the text a predetermined system of ascertaining meaning ( a complex system of signs or codes like the sirens and the red light and applies this sign system directly to the text.

Narratology The process of analyzing a story using all the elements involved in its telling, such as narrator, voice, style, verb tense, personal pronouns, audience, and so forth. Get meaning by seeing the narratee Narratee : Real readers, virtual readers, ideal readers.

Phenomenology A modern philosophical tendency that emphasizes the perceiver. Objects exist if and only we register them on our consciousness. The true poem can exist only in the readers consciousness.

Phenomenology Hans Robert Jauss Critics must examine how any given text was accepted or received by its contemporary readers. Reception theory : readers from any given historical period devise for themselves the criteria whereby they will judge a text. The text remains important in the interpretative process , but the readers play important roles. Horizon of Expectation : a text is seen from different historical perspectives.

Phenomenology Wolfang Iser The critics’ job is not to dissect or explain a text but to examine and explain the text’s effect on the reader Two kinds of readers : implied readers and actual readers Readers fill in the gap in the text using their knowledge base grounded in their world view.

Subjective Criticism Meaning is based on the readers’ thoughts, beliefs, and experiences We shape and find our self identities in the reading process.

Normand Holland Using Freudian psychoanalysis Subjective Criticism Normand Holland Using Freudian psychoanalysis Primary identity from Mother + life experience : identity theme A text is important because it has its own theme. A reader transfroms a text into a private world where one works with his fantacies which are medieted by the text so that they will be socially accepted. . Textual interpretation becomes a matter of working out our own fears, desires, and needs to maintain our psychological health. The act of interpretation is a subjective experience.

Subjective Criticism David Bleich Meaning is developed when the readers work in cooperation with other readers to achieve the text collective meaning. Only when each a reader is able to articulate his or her individual responses within a group about the text, then and only then can a group, working together, negotiate meaning. Interpretation = the collective meaning