Reader Response Theory And The

Part I of Essay
During the mid twentieth century, the literary community witnessed the descent of the New Criticism and the emergence of the reader response movement. The reader response movement sharply contrasts the theories of New Criticism in that it focuses on the importance of the r ....

Part II of Essay
.... is the idea that the reader should be granted freedom to interpret a literary work in any way he/she likes. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his essay entitled "Why Write?", describes this best when he says "the writer appeals to the reader's freedom to collaborate in the production of his work" (627). Wolfgang Iser echoes this belief in the need for readers' freedom in his essay, "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach": "No author worth his salt will ever attempt to set the whole picture before his reader's eyes ... it is only by ac ....