Reader's Response Literary Theory-- I'm a fan!

From my high school years, I recall having "good" experiences with literature, although one has to bear in mind that I liked to read, no matter what. In terms of how novels were taught, I do recall some mundane activities: reading, comp questions, those dreaded quizzes with questions like, "What color hat did Pip have on in ch 7?"

When i was in middle school, i recall my teacher having lit circles in the classroom. The students had to act out scenes from their assigned novel. I dressed up as a grandfather, powder-grey [literally] hair, plaid pants, and all. That book that we were acting out was called After the Rain. The book is about a young teen who has to deal with the fact that her grandfather is dying, a topic that surely most middle schoolers can somehow relate to. Because we had to recreate a scene from the novel and connect it to ourselves (and because we could easily connect the novel to ourselves), that novel remains vivid in my mind, even today.

I guess those two examples, intertwined with my knowledge on reader's response theory, allow me to say that I think that Reader's Response literary theory is beneficial for classroom use. When students can connect with the text and are permitted to express those connections, they have a positive experience with literature. In the Wikipedia entry, it is mentioned that Louise Rosenblatt once said that, "It is important for the teacher to avoid imposing any preconceived notions about the proper way to react to any work." I think this quotation is significant, especially in relation to the middle school/high school classroom. If a teacher addresses the study of a novel by dissecting the text and pinpointing every minute excample of symbolism, metaphors, and "important quotations," readers are immediately turned off. This "turning off" not only affects the students' comprehension of one novel, but also affects their attitude toward future novel studies.

Reader's response theory allows the reader to be in control of his/her reading experience. Instead of having the teacher steer everyone in the same direction, each student can choose a different path, based on their own experience. An important idea to keep in mind with reader's response theory is: "To the reader-response critic, however, reading is always both subjective and objective, and their question is not which but how." When teaching, I think that this quotation is an important one for instructors to keep in the back of their minds. We want students to feel open and comfortable with reading/interpreting literature, but we also want them to realize that every viewpoint needs to be substantiated. For example, if a reader can relate to a character's experiences and thinks that the character's actions are "foolish" [dumb would be the word more students would use], the reader needs to support his/her viewpoint with evidence from the text.

I have personally used Reader's Responses in the classroom, mainly through the use of double-entry journals. I have students write down "important" quotes of their own choice; the challenging part is that they have to explain to me why the quotation is important-- what does it show about the main character? does it relate to something in today's society?--- and so on. Some students have difficulty with this concept, because they are used to being told what IS important. Having students pinpoint what they think is important also helps with increasing their level of confidence, in relation to literature. Not EVERY student is a "good reader," but every student can relate to/connect to SOMETHING in their given text.

While I agree that Reader's Response is a valid form of literary criticism, I think there is room for other forms of lit crit too: historical criticism [especially when students are reading books from "long ago"- you HAVE to at least consider some historical factors when reading/analyzing the book], feminist criticism, and on and on. I think the different forms of lit crit are especially important for literature majors in college; I know that I had a research experience with different forms of lit crit.

For middle school and introductory classes in high school, Reader's Response theory is a non-threatening way to get students to interact with the text. Reader's Response theory is also beneficial to EVERYONE in the classroom setting; sometimes even the teacher learns something new!