READER’S

RESPONSE
THEORY
Reader’s Response
Theory
Reader-response theory recognizes
the reader as an active agent who
imparts “real existence” to the work
and completes its meaning through
interpretation. This theory believe
that a text does not even exist until it
is read.
This theory focuses on the inner
workings of the reader’s heart
and mind, and also focusing on
the audiences or readers’
experience of any literary work. 
 As a reader, while critically reading
something you need to explore,
* The theme and purpose of the text

* Explain why or why not you like the text

* Flaws in the plot

* Explain if you agree with the writer’s

perspective or if you disagree with it.
It does not require you to support
the right or wrong stance. There
is no fixed absolute reading
response. However, it is all about
demonstrating an understanding
of what you read by explaining
and supporting your reactions.
For example, some readers would read a love
story with a happy ending and consider it tragic
because they just got brokenhearted.

This theory posits that any text is open to any

type of interpretation, as long as the reader has
the sufficient explanation and evidence in the
text why he/she understood the text that way.
They believe that a reader does not passively
consume the assigned meaning of the text, but
rather actively find his/her own meaning.
Characteristics of Reader-response
criticism:
1. Reader response criticism places
strong emphasis on the reader’s role in
producing the meaning of a literary
work.

2. It is in some senses an opposite

approach from formalism.
3. Whereas formalists treat meaning as
objectively inherent in the text, in reader
response criticism, the text has no
meaning until it is read by a reader who
creates the meaning.

4. Unlike the formalist critical approach,

this type of literary criticism insists that
works are not universal, that they will not
always mean more or less the same
thing to readers everywhere.
Guide Questions:

A. How would you describe the author’s writing

style?

B. Could you relate with any of the characters?

Why or why not?

C. What do you think are the motivations of each

character in the text?

D. What is the text’s theme and mood?