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    Angelica Cassandra Villena
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    This document provides an overview of reader response theory in literary criticism. It discusses key theorists in this area, Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. Iser argued that reading is an active process where the reader creatively fills in gaps in the text. Fish focused on how the interpretive communities that readers belong to shape their understanding and experiences of a text. Overall, reader response theory emphasizes the reader's role in making meaning from a text and that meanings are not inherent in the text itself but constructed by readers.

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    Reader Response-Reception Theory

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    This document provides an overview of reader response theory in literary criticism. It discusses key theorists in this area, Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. Iser argued that reading is an active process where the reader creatively fills in gaps in the text. Fish focused on how the interpretive communities that readers belong to shape their understanding and experiences of a text. Overall, reader response theory emphasizes the reader's role in making meaning from a text and that meanings are not inherent in the text itself but constructed by readers.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    255 views2 pages

    Reader Response

    Uploaded by

    Angelica Cassandra Villena
    This document provides an overview of reader response theory in literary criticism. It discusses key theorists in this area, Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. Iser argued that reading is an active process where the reader creatively fills in gaps in the text. Fish focused on how the interpretive communities that readers belong to shape their understanding and experiences of a text. Overall, reader response theory emphasizes the reader's role in making meaning from a text and that meanings are not inherent in the text itself but constructed by readers.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    Reader Response-Reception Theory

    Wolfgang Iser
    Stanley Fish
    Presenters: Ronald B. Torres and Agnus Dei Panelo

    Reader Response Theory/Criticism
    Rooted in phenomenology, a branch of philosophy that deals with the understanding of how
    things appear
    Holds that the reader is a necessary third party in the author-text-reader relationship that
    constitutes the literary work
    It is important to stress that the reader-response theory is open
    Critics respect not only the intellectual act of analysis and comprehension that readers perform
    but also their subjective response and their emotional apprehension of literary work
    Readers freedom and texts limits double sided nature of literary interpretation from a reader-
    response perspectives
    Rules in Reader-Response Theory
    1. Do not add
    2. Do not ignore
    3. Do not change
    Characteristics
    Emphasizes process rather than product
    Experience rather than object
    Subjective
    How readers interpret texts
    "Styles" or "identity themes" of readers are similar
    o "Character-Action-Moral Style" ("connected knowers") - treat literature as coextensive
    with experience
    o "Diggers for Secrets" - find hidden meanings in literature; psychoanalyze motives of
    characters, etc.
    o "Anthropologists" - look for cultural patterns, norms, values
    Readers belong to same "interpretive communities" (Stanley Fish) with shared reading strategies,
    values and interpretive assumptions (i.e., shared "discourse"); concept of the "informed reader."
    Readers are situated in a common cultural/historical setting and shaped by dominant discourses
    and ideologies
    Wolfgang Iser
    Born in Marienberg, Germany
    His parents were Paul and Else (Steinbach) Iser.
    He studied literature in the universities of Leipzig and Tubingen
    He was married to Lore Iser.
    He is known for his reader-response theory in literary theory.

    Wolfgang Iser in Reader-Response Theory
    Argues that the text in part controls the readers responses but contains gaps that the reader
    creatively fills
    Pointed out that reading is an active and creative process
    Pointed out, in considering a literary work, one must take into account not only the actual text but
    also the actions involved in responding to that text
    He suggests that we might think of the literary work as having two poles:

    o Artistic pole- the text created by the author
    o Aesthetic pole- refers to the realization accomplished by the reader

    Stanley Fish
    Stanley Eugene Fish
    born April 19, 1938, Providence, R.I., U.S.
    American literary critic
    Stanley Fish in Reader-Response Theory
    stresses the experience of the reader during the reading process
    concerned primarily with individual acts of reading
    claims that it is the interpretive community that creates its own reality
    his theory is epistemological in that it deals not so much with literary criticism
    meaning inherent not in the text but in the reader

    References
    Conparis, R., Schleifer, R. (1994). Contemporary Literary Criticism: literary and cultural studies.
    New York: Longman

    Diyanni, R. (2002). Literature: reading fiction, poetry and drama. New York: McGraw-Hill
    Companies

    Habib, M.A.R. (2005). A history of literary criticism (From Plato to present). USA: Blackwell
    Publishing

    Jacobs, H. E., Roberts, E. V. (2004). Litereature: an introduction to Reading and Writing. USA:
    Pearson Prentice Hall

    McManus,B. F. (1998). Retrieved on March 4,2014 from www2:cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/readcrit.html

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