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Reader Response Theory: The role of reader in making meaning

Reader Response Theory


Reader Response Theory is a way of reading literature that focuses on the reader’s role in making meaning. It says that texts are not complete until someone reads them and brings their own ideas, feelings, and experiences to them.

This theory became popular in the 1960s–1970s, mainly as a reaction against New Criticism, which believed meaning was only in the text itself.



Key Concepts

  • Meaning is made when the reader reads the text. It’s not fixed in the text alone.
  • Each reader brings personal background, culture, and emotions to the reading experience.
  • Different readers may have different interpretations of the same text.
  • Louise Rosenblatt introduced:
    • Efferent reading – reading for facts or information.
    • Aesthetic reading – reading for enjoyment and experience.
  • Wolfgang Iser introduced the idea of the implied reader—an imagined reader suggested by the text.


Major Critics and Their Ideas

Critic Main Ideas and Works
Louise Rosenblatt Literature as Exploration; transactional theory; efferent vs. aesthetic reading
Wolfgang Iser The Act of Reading; implied reader; filling in narrative gaps
Hans-Robert Jauss Reception theory; historical and cultural context of readers
Stanley Fish Surprised by Sin, Is There a Text in This Class?; interpretive communities
Norman Holland 5 Readers Reading; psychological responses of readers
David Bleich Subjective criticism; meaning as a personal and individual response
Roland Barthes The Death of the Author; reader creates meaning, not the author
I.A. Richards Early experiments in reader misunderstanding; importance of context
C.S. Lewis An Experiment in Criticism; classifies books based on readers' responses
“A poem is not its words, it is the reader’s experience of those words.” – Reader Response Perspective


Important Books and Essays

  • Louise Rosenblatt – Literature as Exploration (1938)
  • Wolfgang Iser – The Act of Reading (1978)
  • Hans-Robert Jauss – Toward an Aesthetic of Reception (1982)
  • Stanley Fish – Surprised by Sin (1967), Is There a Text in This Class? (1980)
  • Norman Holland – 5 Readers Reading (1975)
  • C.S. Lewis – An Experiment in Criticism (1961)
  • Roland Barthes – The Death of the Author (1967)

Criticisms of Reader Response Theory

  • Some scholars say it leads to too much subjectivity—anything can be interpreted in any way.
  • It may ignore the author’s purpose, the structure of the text, or the historical setting.
  • Formalists and New Critics prefer to focus only on the text itself, not the reader’s feelings.

UGC NET English – Exam Tips

  • Focus on major critics: Rosenblatt, Iser, Fish, Jauss, Holland.
  • Learn keywords like implied reader, interpretive communities, and transactional theory.
  • Understand how this theory is different from New Criticism and Formalism.
  • Match critics to their works and terms for objective-type questions.