Reader's Response
- In order to interpret text, all possible reactions and perspectives of readers need to be considered.
- The way one reacts, is how the meaning is interpreted.
- Every interpretation is unique because of the fact that all readers bring their own emotions, concerns, knowledge and life experiences to what they are reading.
- The literary criticism lens provides readers with a way to engage personally into a piece of literature.
- This lens also opens up the possibility of multiple interpretations and perspectives of individual text.
- Everything from ones past comes forward while reading, thus changing the perspective and response of every individual reader.
- Reader response criticism arose as a critical theory in response to formalist interpretations of literature.
- Louise Rosenblatt was one of the first people to develop the reader response criticism.