Former Marine, Current Student, Future Teacher, but always a Dad!

Reader response stresses the importance of the reader’s role in interpreting texts. Rejecting the idea that there is a single, fixed meaning inherent in every literary work, this theory holds that the individual creates his or her own meaning through a “transaction” with the text based on personal associations. Because all readers bring their own emotions, concerns, life experiences, and knowledge to their reading, each interpretation is subjective and unique.
Many trace the beginning of reader-response theory to scholar Louise Rosenblatt’s influential 1938 work Literature As Exploration. Rosenblatt’s ideas were a reaction to the formalist theories of the New Critics, who promoted “close readings” of literature, a practice which advocated rigid scholarly detachment in the study of texts and rejected all forms of personal interpretation by the reader. According to Rosenblatt, the New Critics treated the text as “an autonomous entity that could be objectively analyzed” using clear-cut technical criteria. Rosenblatt believed instead that “the reading of any work of literature is, of necessity, an individual and unique occurrence involving the mind and emotions of some particular reader and a particular text at a particular time under particular circumstances.”

The above is an excerpt from an Annenburg Media online workshop explaining Reader Response theory. As I have gone through my college education trying to figure out what I believe when it comes to literature and what is important when teaching literature it has become more and more evident that what is important is getting the students to read with a connection to the text. I had never known what this was called or even that my belief would have a name. Then I started to learn this very belief and what I understood had been put into text. It just struck me that what they were saying in these texts is very important in teaching the average student to get meaning from reading.

Let me say for the record that the average student is not the future English major. I believe the knowledge of literary terms and being able to use critical thinking is important but most middle and high school teachers have trouble just getting their students to read let alone move to the point of reading with a critical eye. Many teachers believe that literature should be looked at from a New Critical stance. I am not going to delve too deep into the debate but from my point of view this does not get the student to invest in the process of reading. It does not teach the student to love reading or even like reading. It doesn’t develop an ability in the student to connect to the reading thus creating a desire to read independently, with purpose, and with a personal understanding of books outside of the academic environment. Author Scott Tinsley says in an interview for BlogCritics magazine:

Any text, regardless of its form, can be an opportunity for communicative action. In writing a very personal book such as this, I’ve felt like I’ve done my part in sharing. But I would not ask a reader to, as I said, to “compare, contrast or critique.” That misses the point of reader response theory. The beauty of plurality in reading is that the text can take you where you let it, not where it’s supposed to take you. The best example in the book is the last chapter, a very true story, a letter to my daughter as she left home for college. I’ve had numerous parents write and tell me it just broke them up. And I’ve had students respond with, “How could you embarrass your daughter like that?” They’ve allowed the story to both reflect on their own circumstances but also create a political site; a momentary struggle within their own psyche.”

Mr. Tinsley’s point is an important one because he alludes to the fact that the reader has an important role in the product of literature. What makes a text valid in one person’s eyes could invalidate it anothers. To ask a reluctant reader to view a work of literature from a critical perspective would be the same as expecting a biological breakdown when asking them what they appreciate about their loved ones. Its cold, harsh, and has a negative influence on their view of reading. If we can use reader response techniques to get the reader to engage in the reading process and start to read on their own at some point they will be able to view quality works from poor writing and be able to tell you why they feel this way. We need to be able to get them to buy into reading as worth while first. We don’t expect children to go from throwing a ball, to playing T-ball, to managing the New York Yankees so why would we expect them to go from learning the alphabet, to learning to read, to interpreting literature without the proper foundations. In my mind Reader response is the methodology that follows phonetic awareness to set the foundation for students to not only become readers but critical readers. 

Annenburg Media Online
The Expanding Canon: Teaching Multicultural Literature in High School
Reader Response- Theory Overview
By Pat Mora and James Welch

Blog Critics Magazine
Interview with Scott Tinley, Author of Things To Be Survived
By Scott Butki
March 28, 2007