Reader-Oriented Criticism

Origins and Early Influences

 Reader-oriented criticism gained prominence in the U.S. in the early 1970s, but has
historical roots in ancient philosophy (Plato and Aristotle).

 Historical roots trace back to the 1920s and 1930s (New Criticism).

 Opposes the New Criticism approach, which views the text as self-contained

 Focuses on the reader’s role in interpreting a text rather than just the text itself.
 Classical Concerns with Audience Response

o Plato (Ancient Greece)

 Believed plays could inflame passions, overriding rational thought.
o Aristotle (Poetics)
 Concerned with emotional effects on audiences.
 Explored catharsis—purging emotions through art.
 Assumption of the Passive Reader

o Classical and many later critics viewed readers as passive.

o Literature was seen as something consumed rather than interacted with.
o The text was considered the primary source of meaning.
Shift in Focus: Romanticism (Early 1800s)

o Emphasis moved from the text to the author.

o The author was viewed as a genius with unique insights.
o Biographical and historical context became key to interpretation.
Return to Text-Centered Criticism: New Criticism
(1930s)

o Text became autonomous—self-contained and analyzable.

o Meaning derived from the text itself, not external factors.
o New Critical Approach
 Focused on close reading and technical analysis.
 Downplayed historical, social, and authorial context.
New Criticism and the Passive Reader
o Readers were seen as objective analyzers, not active participants.
o Personal experiences and emotions were considered irrelevant to textual
analysis.
o Studying reader effects was deemed separate from studying the text.
I. A. Richards and Early Experiments in
Reader Response
 One of the pioneers of modern literary criticism along with T.S. Eliot. In 1920s challenged the idea that meaning
resides solely in the text.
 Investigated how readers interpret texts differently.
 Conducted experiments at Cambridge University:
o Gave students anonymous poems and asked them to interpret them without knowing the authors or titles.
o Found wildly divergent responses, proving that interpretation is subjective.
 Key Works: Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) & Practical Criticism (1929).
 Believed poetry produces "pseudo-statements" about reality but is
psychologically necessary.
 Initially emphasized the reader’s role but later returned to textual
analysis.
 Despite his early reader-oriented focus, he later aligned with New
Criticism, believing textual analysis reveals the most accurate
interpretation.
 His psychological theory stated that people are “bundles of desires”
(appetencies) that literature helps balance.
Louise M. Rosenblatt and Transactional Theory
 Criticized Formalist methods and the New Criticism’s focus on the text alone. •Rosenblatt rejected the idea that
texts have a single correct meaning.
 Key Work: Literature as Exploration (1938), later expanded in The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978).
 • In Literature as Exploration (1938) and The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978), she argued for transactional
reading, where meaning emerges from the interaction between the reader and the text.
 Proposed the Transactional Theory of Reading:
o Meaning emerges from the interaction between text and reader.
o Reading is not passive; it is an active, lived-through experience.
 Differentiated two modes of reading:
o Efferent reading (factual, informational reading).
o Aesthetic reading (immersive, emotional engagement with the text).
 Introduced the "poem" as an event—each reading experience creates a new literary work.
 Believed multiple interpretations are valid but not limitless—text places constraints on meaning.
Structuralism and Reader-Text Interactions
 (Text-Oriented but Reader-Interactive Approach)
 Definition: Structuralists analyze how meaning emerges through signs and codes in a text.
 influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure, views texts as part of a larger system of signs.
 Key Theorists: Roland Barthes, Gérard Genette, Roman Jakobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jonathan Culler.
 Structuralists see literature as a system of signs, similar to language.
 Gerald Prince and Narratology:
o Developed the concept of the narratee (the reader implied by the text).
o Distinguished between:
1) real readers (who actually read the work)
2) virtual readers (to whom the author believes they are writing),
3) and ideal readers (the one who explicitly and implicitly understands all the naunces, terminology, and
structure of the text).

Meaning emerges from how readers decode linguistic structures, but the text still guides interpretation.
Phenomenology and the Role of Reader Perception
 (Balanced Approach – Reader and Text Co-Create Meaning)
 Definition: Meaning exists only when perceived by an active consciousness. Phenomenology argues
that objects (texts) only have meaning when perceived by an active consciousness.

 Key Theorists: George Poulet, Wolfgang Iser, Hans Robert Jauss.

 Hans Robert Jauss – Reception Theory:
o Introduced horizon of expectations—how historical and social contexts shape interpretation.
o Meaning changes over time depending on cultural values.
 Wolfgang Iser – The Implied Reader:
o Differentiated between :
1) implied readers (ideal audience expected by the text)
2) and actual readers (real-world audiences with unique biases).
o Argued that readers actively fill in textual gaps to construct meaning.
Subjective Criticism and Psychological Approaches
• (Reader-Determined Meaning)
 Focuses almost entirely on the reader rather than the text.
 Key Figures: Norman Holland, David Bleich, Stanley Fish.
 Norman Holland – Identity Theme Theory:
o Readers impose their psychological identity onto texts.
o Reading is a way to work through personal desires and anxieties.
 David Bleich – Subjective Criticism:
o Meaning does not exist in the text—it emerges through group discussion.
o Interpretation is a socially negotiated process.
 Stanley Fish – Interpretive Communities:
o Meaning depends on social and cultural reading communities.
o The text is a blank slate (tabula rasa), shaped by readers’ assumptions.
Stanley Fish and Interpretive Communities

 Introduced Affective Stylistics (how texts affect readers).

 Claimed that meaning is created by interpretive communities (social
groups that share reading strategies).
 Declared that texts are blank slates onto which readers project
meaning.
Critiques of Reader-Oriented Criticism
 Challenges from Text-Centered Theories:
o Limits of Relativity: Concern that multiple interpretations lead to relativism:
If every interpretation is valid, is there any truth? If meaning is entirely reader-based, can a
text mean anything?
o Lack of Stability: Opponents argue for fixed meanings to prevent extreme subjectivity.
o Reader Bias: Psychological and cultural interpretations can distort the text.

 Modern Adaptations:
o Reader-oriented criticism has influenced feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, and queer theory.
o Modern critics explore how different social groups (e.g., gender, race, class) interpret texts
differently.