The Critical Lens of The People! Reader-Response The Critical Lens of The People!
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.
Scary..huh?
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 “text-centered.” Iser and his “gaps of meaning” is an example. Mind the Gap!
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.” 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!) Hero
The reader brings to the work personality traits, memories of past events, present needs and preoccupations, a particular mood of the moment….these and many other elements in a never- to-be-duplicated combination determine his or her response to the peculiar contribution of the text.
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 “reader-focused” 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! I remember one time my family visited the south and I got a chocolate ice cream cone…with jimmies!
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! I remember one time my family visited the south and I got a chocolate ice cream cone…with jimmies!
A discussion of Raider’s Night… I remember one time my friend pinched me and called me fat, so I know how Chris felt! I remember one time my family took me to a football game and I got a chocolate ice cream cone…with jimmies!
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.