Anyone particularly good at Reader Response Analysis Theory?
Moderator: Orlion
Anyone particularly good at Reader Response Analysis Theory?
I am writing a thesis based on using this theory to critique 'The Raven', by Edgar Allen Poe. Anyone know where to start? If you have any ideas, lemme know.
"Fortunate circumstances do not equate to high ideals."
"Mostly muffins sir."- My answer in response to the question posed by the officer, "Son, do you have anything on you I should know about?"
His response: "Holy $&!^. He's not kidding! Look at all these muffins!"
"Mostly muffins sir."- My answer in response to the question posed by the officer, "Son, do you have anything on you I should know about?"
His response: "Holy $&!^. He's not kidding! Look at all these muffins!"
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Vraith
- The Gap Into Spam
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I'm assuming, from the way you asked the question that this is an introductory-level thing, since there are 3 major divisions in reader response, and they often don't play well together...but you may be able to ignore that.
The basic idea is that the meaning of the work is an act done by the reader, it is made by interpreting, the text is the material. [That is a gross over-simplification].
I don't want to go on forever, but take the Frost line: "I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference."
The basic process is:
What does this mean?
1) Go your own way, it's tougher but wonderful.
2) If most people take the same path, there is probably a good reason for it.
[among other things...these two work as example, cuz it's easy to see he doesn't tell you what the difference was, whether it was good or bad.]
Then:
What is it about me [experiences, knowledge, reading techniques, etc] that built that meaning in relation to the line?
For 1) it might be "I'm edgy, I'm a rebel, I'm curious, only challenges make life worthwhile" etc.
For 2) maybe "tradition matters, wiser heads have been here, obviously the used road is the important/successful one, or people wouldn't take it."
Again, a gross over-simplification. Some R-R would say that the "I" controls. Some that a sort of "us" ["I" matter, but "we" have some control of how we read...we can set aside some of ourselves, walk in other shoes, use other reading methods, etc.] Some that "the reader" response is caused and limited by the text itself. [need I say gross over-simplification again?].
I hope that helps, I fear it might just confuse the issue.
The basic idea is that the meaning of the work is an act done by the reader, it is made by interpreting, the text is the material. [That is a gross over-simplification].
I don't want to go on forever, but take the Frost line: "I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference."
The basic process is:
What does this mean?
1) Go your own way, it's tougher but wonderful.
2) If most people take the same path, there is probably a good reason for it.
[among other things...these two work as example, cuz it's easy to see he doesn't tell you what the difference was, whether it was good or bad.]
Then:
What is it about me [experiences, knowledge, reading techniques, etc] that built that meaning in relation to the line?
For 1) it might be "I'm edgy, I'm a rebel, I'm curious, only challenges make life worthwhile" etc.
For 2) maybe "tradition matters, wiser heads have been here, obviously the used road is the important/successful one, or people wouldn't take it."
Again, a gross over-simplification. Some R-R would say that the "I" controls. Some that a sort of "us" ["I" matter, but "we" have some control of how we read...we can set aside some of ourselves, walk in other shoes, use other reading methods, etc.] Some that "the reader" response is caused and limited by the text itself. [need I say gross over-simplification again?].
I hope that helps, I fear it might just confuse the issue.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
the difference between evidence and sources: whether they come from the horse's mouth or a horse's ass.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
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[Syl]
- Unfettered One
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Yeah, I'd say first decide what kind of reader response criticism you want to do. It would be easiest to do as Vraith explained and point out the parts that were significant to you and explain the parts of you that make it significant (would especially try to focus on things that bring up some kind of common theme). The good thing is that there are no wrong reader responses, only bad ones.
I chose reader response for my 303 midterm on Gatsby. Growing up with domestic violence in the home, I focused on Tom's abuse of Daisy and Daisy's willingness to stay with Tom under those circumstances. *shrug*
Or you could go the Interpretive Communities route (Stanley Fish), and approach it from a particular angle. For instance, what would the mostly Whig Party readers have made of such a work that appeared in their publication? That gets into historical criticism, but reader response usually gets muddied somewhere - gender, post-colonial, African-American, etc.
I chose reader response for my 303 midterm on Gatsby. Growing up with domestic violence in the home, I focused on Tom's abuse of Daisy and Daisy's willingness to stay with Tom under those circumstances. *shrug*
Or you could go the Interpretive Communities route (Stanley Fish), and approach it from a particular angle. For instance, what would the mostly Whig Party readers have made of such a work that appeared in their publication? That gets into historical criticism, but reader response usually gets muddied somewhere - gender, post-colonial, African-American, etc.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
-George Steiner
-George Steiner
