reception & reader-response theory

7/28/2019 Reception & Reader-response Theory

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RECEPTION

&READER-RESPONSE

THEORY


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Reader-response theory may be traced initially to

theorists such as I. A. Richards & LouiseRosenblatt

A reader brings certain assumptions to a textbased on the interpretive strategies he/she haslearned in a particular interpretive community

Reading is a dialectical process between thereader and text

A reader's aesthetic experience is always boundby time and historical determinants


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..."the making and revising of assumptions,

the rendering and regretting of judgments,the coming to and abandoning of

conclusions, the giving and withdrawing ofapproval, the specifying of causes, the

asking of questions, the supplying of

answers, the solving of puzzles" (StanleyFish, Is There a Text in This Class?, 1980, 00.158-9)


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..."The significance of the work...does not lie in

the meaning sealed within the text, but in thefact that the meaning brings out what had beenpreviously sealed within us....Through gestalt-

forming, we actually participate in the text, andthis means that we are caught up in the verything we are producing. This is why we oftenhave the impression, as we read, that we areliving another life." (Iser, The Act of Reading, pp.157, 132.)


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Key Terms

Horizons of expectations: A term developed by Hans RobertJauss to explain how a reader's"expectations" or frame of reference isbased on the reader's past experienceof literature and what preconceived

notions about literature the readerpossesses (i.e., a reader's aestheticexperience is bound by time and

historical determinants).


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Implied reader:

A term developed by Wolfgang Iser; the impliedreader [somewhat akin to an "ideal reader"] is "ahypothetical reader of a text. The implied readerembodies all those predispositions necessary

for a literary work to exercise its effect --predispositions laid down, not by an empiricaloutside reality, but by the text itself.Consequently, the implied reader as a concept

has his roots firmly planted in the structure ofthe text;

(Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown -

Glossary of Literary Theory)


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Kinds of Reader-Response Criticism

Individualists: those who focus upon the

individual reader's experience

Experimenters: those who conductpsychological experiments on a defined set

of readers

Uniformists: those who assume a fairlyuniform response by all readers


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One can therefore draw a distinction betweenreader-response theorists who see the individual

reader driving the whole experience and otherswho think of literary experience as largely text-driven and uniform (with individual variations

that can be ignored).The individualists, who think the reader

controls, derive what is common in a literary

experience from shared techniques for readingand interpreting which are, however, individuallyapplied by different readers.


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The unifomists, who put the text in

control, derive commonalities of response,obviously, from the literary work itself.

The most fundamental difference among

reader-response critics is probably, then,between those who regard individual

differences among readers' responses as

important and those who try to get aroundthem.


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People have one agenda when they read a workfor the first time, and very different ones, when

they reread. Developing a strong interpretationrequires being very conscious of all of theseprocesses and changes in reading, understandingindividual responses better by comparing themwith others, and thus seeing multiple interpretivepossibilities. In a sense, by comparing readingsat both the first reading and re-reading stages,

students come to understand which points aremost compelling and persuasive--and which areidiosyncratic and/or poorly based on text.


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The Reading Process

Pre-Reading

Defining the horizon of expectations.In retracing the work's "horizon of expectation,"

reading can tease out the sociocultural contextsactivated by a work, and participate in theirreformulation. Similarly, by identifying his/her ownexpectations, a reader can begin to understand theassumptions, experiences, preconceptions that he/shebrings to the process of reading.

2. Identifying assumptions, interests, preconceptions.


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Pre-reading Questions

Text:

What assumptions do you have about the author of thetext?

Have you read any of his other works? Knowing when and where this story/poem was written,

what are your expectations of theme, charactertreatment, techniques?

Do you have any expectations of genre from glancing atthe text?

What suggestions/expectations does the title convey?


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First Reading

We are trained to react in more or less similar ways tonarrative texts during first reading. Strong generic,textual and cultural expectations regulate our responses.

Many of us read fiction self-indulgently, seeking areconfirmation of our expectations and biases.

We smooth over contradictions and follow thenarrative to settled conclusions even when we distrustthe narratorial voice.

On the other hand, we find stories that thwart suchexpectations disappointing, obscure, and "dry."


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While you read, pause periodically and make a note ofsome of the following:

details of plot or character that are emphasized, or thatyou have singled out as significant;

narrative sequences, their role in foreshadowing andbuilding thematic coherence; temporal, spatial,

words, clusters of images that stick in your memory;your immediate response to these textual sequences;

associations, connections, fantasies triggered by thetext's situations; specific insights they offer about text

and reader; "gaps," contradictions, unresolved questions in the

story's plot, characterization or overall structure;


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what seems to carry forward the flow of reading,or, on the contrary, obstruct it;

narratorial voices, their authority andtrustworthiness; focalization, point of view

expectations upon opening this story and howthese are fulfilled/thwarted by the text;

your overall reactions to the story, aspects youfound challenging or hard to accept.


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One way of making rereading more effective is toorganize it around specific questions that call for a

comparison between first and second reading, betweenresponse and critical interpretation.

Readers will be asked to reexamine their positiontoward the story after second reading, to ponder some

of the exclusions, distortions, misreading they haveperpetrated during first reading.

They are also asked to speculate on how successfully

they have attended to details, how closely they havemonitored the progress of the story through inferences,predictions, connections.


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2nd Reading Questionnaire

how did the story's general purport andorientation change after second reading?

what aspects of the story have you"misremembered," adapted to conform to yourfirst reading?

what possibilities of the text have you ignored(not account for) during earlier reading?


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what "mysteries" or "gaps" in the narrative have

you tried to settle and how successfully?what aspects in the story are still unresolved,

what questions unanswered?

who did you identify with during first reading,and how did this identification affect yourunderstanding of the story?

have your generic or thematic expectationsabout the story changed?


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is the story more/or less satisfying after secondreading, and why?

as you begin to sort out the textual "evidence" insupport of an interpretation of the story, whichdetails do you find useful, and which seem

difficult to resolve with your interpretation?

has this approach to reading given you moreconfidence in your judgments and helped you

understand the intricate details of the textbetter?


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Every student must participate fully in order for theclass dynamic to work, and in order to develop thestrongest, most detailed readings of a work;

Students must have as much information aboutbiographical, socio-cultural and historical contexts and

leading, open questions related to the text as possible,but presented in a voluntary, timely fashion (e.g. theyshould have it available when they "ask" for it);

The teacher's role, then, is more of a coach and collegial

reader than the authoritative establisher ofinterpretation, participating as a more knowledgeablere-reader but still another reader in the class whoseinterpretation should be comparatively muted.


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THE END!!!

reception & reader-response theory

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