LiteratureLesson 2 of 2 in the course Literary theory

Reader-Response Criticism: Readers, Texts, and Interpretive Models

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Reader-response criticism shifts attention from a literary work alone to the reader’s experience of reading it. This lesson introduces the approach, its historical development, and its contrast with text-centered theories.

Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that studies the reader, or audience, and the experience of engaging with a literary work. It differs from approaches that focus primarily on the author, the work’s content, or its formal features.

All flashcards

Transactional reader-response theory
Meaning develops through an interaction between a text’s possibilities and a reader’s interpretation.
Symbolization and resymbolization
David Bleich’s term for the process by which readers’ experiences shape and reshape meaning.
Implied reader
The reader-position that a particular work calls for, in Wolfgang Iser’s theory.
Horizon of expectations
Historically shaped assumptions and expectations that influence how readers receive a work.
Bi-active model
An account of reading that gives influence to both the literary work and the reader.

Quiz questions

  1. Which reader-response approach emphasizes shared interpretive practices within groups of readers?Answer: Social reader-response theory
  2. Which theorist proposed that a core identity theme shapes a person’s characteristic style of reading?Answer: Norman Holland
  3. In Wolfgang Iser’s theory, what is the implied reader?Answer: The reader-position a particular work calls for
  4. What does Hans-Robert Jauss mean by a horizon of expectations?Answer: Historically shaped assumptions that influence a reader’s reception of a work
  5. What does a bi-active model say influences literary reading?Answer: Both the work and the reader

Based on the Wikipedia article Reader-response criticism, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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