READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM

Important Points: Reading is something you do. Regard the work not as what is printed on the page, but as what is experienced through each act of reading. READER IS ACTIVE, NOT PASSIVE. Reader performs the poem into existence from a text in the same way a musician performs music from a score. It is performance art. Choose-your-own-adventure stories Focuses on what a work does or makes a reader do. Focuses on the gaps in the text, on what the text doesn’t say. Lacunae (Luh kyoo nee) – gap or missing part in a manuscript, series, or logical argument (does the husband commit suicide or die accidently in Ha Jin’s “In Broad Daylight”?)

Why this form of criticism? Different genres and particular works construct different classes or kinds of readers (romance vs. horror. vs. classical) Literature helps to shape social identity and social status shapes access to different literature. Circular. This is relevant because readers often cannot find their counterparts within texts or encounter negative stereotypes of their group (Heart of Darkness).

Three different groups of critics: Individualists – individual reader, based on values of reader Experimenters – psychological experiments on a defined set of readers (readers often put aside ordinary values and criminals become heroes) Uniformists – assume a fairly uniform response by all readers, all readers have certain set expectations that change over time

Possible short-coming of this approach Allows reader to interpret anyway they wish