Your Opinion Matters

When compared to New Criticism, reader response theory (in particular transactional reader-response theory) is not actually all that different. Louise Rosenblatt, who is often associated with this particular type of reader-response theory, does not disregard the text completely; in fact, she thinks it is an important factor in analyzing literature. The difference between New Criticism and reader-response theory is that the former chooses to focus only on the text is telling us, and not what the reader interprets. Rosenblatt "claims that both are necessary in the production of meaning," (Tyson, 165). We as readers use what the text tells us, plus our own experiences, in order to discover the meaning of a piece. These experiences could be anything, from something that happened to us long ago right down to the mood or environment we are in while reading the text. Reader-response theory calls for the reader to immerse themselves in what they are reading, rather than just letting the text speak on it's own.