As the title suggests reader-response criticism
focuses on reader's responses to the literary texts. This theory believes that
the meaning of the text depends on. the readers. The text does not come into
existence until the readers have read it. When the readers read the text, it
becomes a real text. This theory believes that the meaning of the text depends
on the readers. The text does not come into existence until the readers have read
it. When the readers read the text, it becomes a real text. In the same way,
readers are free to interpret the text in any way they like. They can form the
meaning of their own. So, this theory believes that the meaning of the text is
not fixed because the different readers will find different meanings in the
same text. They are also free to use any other literary theory to interpret it.
But most of the reader-response critics use their own style of interpretation
which is unique in itself. Reader-response criticism became Catchier in 1970s. It believed that
the role of the reader cannot be omitted from the texts' interpretation. It
means that the readers have great role for the existence of the literature.
This is one of the two great values of this theory. Second, it believes that
the readers are not passive in reading the text. It suggests that readers
actively make meaning. The meaning depends on the readers. In fact the same
reader will also find different meanings from the same text because of the
different life experiences. The knowledge we get through life makes difference
in the understanding of a text. If we read a text now, we make some sense but
if we read the same text after twenty years, we will find different sense.
Our personal experiences and change in thinking make the reading different
other texts. They try to show the evidence that how the text shows the meaning. This is the best
interpretation.
New criticism gives the best interpretation for the short poems and stories because the shorter the text, the more of its formal elements are analyzed. But in the longer texts, the detail analysis of the formal elements is impossible. In that case, only few elements are analyses. They analyses imagery, the role of narrator, function of setting, pattern of light and dark and few other elements. The analysis of every word is not possible for the longer texts. So, new critical analysis is more effective for the shorter texts. Anyway, the whole process is devoted to find them embedded in the text. New criticism believes that it is the only method ‘to interpret the text, according to its formal elements. It is purely literary criticism. Therefore, it is the single best interpretation.