American Literature I American Literature I American Literature I

American Literature I American Literature I American Literature I SBCTC & Lumen Learning American Literature I Copyright © 2018 by Lumen Learning. I Instructor Resources (material available upon log-in) 1 PDF PDF versions of the primary textbook are available for offline use. While these versions are a convenient alternative for times when students lack Internet access, they do not include interactive content such as simulations, videos, and quizzes. For that reason, the offline versions should be used as a backup rather than as the primary textbook. You can download the PDF using the following links: PDF (2.9 MB) To share these files with your students, copy and paste the text and download link above into a page or announcement in your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.). CC licensed content, Original PDF. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC licensed content, Shared previously Kindle. Authored by: Alice Bartlett. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alicebartlett/7962401790/. License: CC BY-NC: Attribution- NonCommercial 6 American Literature I II Student Resources 2 Reader-Response Criticism Summary We have examined many schools of literary criticism. Here you will find an in-depth look at one of them: Reader- Response. The Purpose of Reader-Response Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work come alive. For example, in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the monster doesn’t exist, so to speak, until the reader reads Frankenstein and reanimates it to life, becoming a co-creator of the text. Thus, the purpose of a reading response is examining, explaining, and defending your personal reaction to a text. Your critical reading of a text asks you to explore: why you like or dislike the text; explain whether you agree or disagree with the author; identify the text’s purpose; and critique the text. There is no right or wrong answer to a reading response. Nonetheless, it is important that you demonstrate an understanding of the reading and clearly explain and support your reactions. Do not use the standard approach of just writing: “I liked this text because it is so cool and the ending made me feel happy,” or “I hated it because it was stupid, and had nothing at all to do with my life, and was too negative and boring.” In writing a response you may assume the reader has already read the text. Thus, do not summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a systematic, analytical approach to the text. Write as a Scholar When writing a reader-response write as an educated adult addressing other adults or fellow scholars. As a beginning scholar, if you write that something has nothing to do with you or does not pass your “Who cares?” test, but many other people think that it is important and great, readers will probably not agree with you that the text is dull or boring. Instead, they may conclude that you are dull and boring, that you are too immature or uneducated to understand what important things the author wrote. Criticize with Examples If you did not like a text, that is fine, but criticize it either from: principle, for example: Is the text racist? Does the text unreasonably puts down things, such as religion, or groups of people, such as women or adolescents, conservatives or democrats, etc? Does the text include factual errors or outright lies? It is too dark and despairing? Is it 8 American Literature I falsely positive? form, for example: Is the text poorly written? Does it contain too much verbal “fat”? Is it too emotional or too childish? Does it have too many facts and figures? Are there typos or other errors in the text? Do the ideas wander around without making a point? In each of these cases, do not simply criticize, but give examples. As a beginning scholar, be cautious of criticizing any text as “confusing” or “crazy,” since readers might simply conclude thatyou are too ignorant or slow to understand and appreciate it. The Structure of a Reader-Response Essay Choosing a text to study is the first step in writing a reader-response essay. Once you have chosen the text, your challenge is to connect with it and have a “conversation” with the text. In the beginning paragraph of your reader-response essay, be sure to mention the following: title of the work to which you are responding; the author; and the main thesis of the text. Then, do your best to answer the questions below. Remember, however, that you are writing an essay, not filling out a short-answer worksheet. You do not need to work through these questions in order, one by one, in your essay. Rather, your paper as a whole should be sure to address these questions in some way. What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)? It is not acceptable to write that the text has NOTHING to do with you, since just about everything humans can write has to do in some way with every other human. How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong? Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human. Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong. What did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Please do not write “I agree with everything the author wrote,” since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold. How well does the text address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world? How does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass the “Who cares?” test? Use quotes from the text to illustrate. What can you praise about the text? What problems did you have with it? Reading and writing “critically” does not mean the same thing as “criticizing,” in everyday language (complaining or griping, fault-finding, nit-picking). Your “critique” can and should be positive and praise the text if possible, as well as pointing out problems, disagreements and shortcomings. How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as entertainment or as a work of art? Use quotes or examples to illustrate the quality of the text as art or entertainment. Of course, be aware that some texts are not meant to be entertainment or art: a news report or textbook, for instance, may be neither entertaining or artistic, but may still be important and successful. For the conclusion, you might want to discuss: your overall reaction to the text; 9 American Literature I whether you would read something else like this in the future; whether you would read something else by this author; and if would you recommend read this text to someone else and why. Key Takeaways In reader-response, the reader is essential to the meaning of a text for they bring the text to life. The purpose of a reading response is examining, explaining, and defending your personal reaction to a text. When writing a reader-response, write as an educated adult addressing other adults or fellow scholars. As a beginning scholar, be cautious of criticizing any text as “boring,” “crazy,” or “dull.” If you do criticize, base your criticism on the principles and form of the text itself. The challenge of a reader-response is to show how you connected with the text. Examples Reader-Response Essay Example To Misread or to Rebel: A Woman’s Reading of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” At its simplest, reading is “an activity that is guided by the text; this must be processed by the reader who is then, in turn, affected by what he has processed” (Iser 63). The text is the compass and map, the reader is the explorer. However, the explorer cannot disregard those unexpected boulders in the path which he or she encounters along the journey that are not written on the map. Likewise, the woman reader does not come to the text without outside influences. She comes with her experiences as a woman—a professional woman, a divorcée, a single mother. Her reading, then, is influenced by her experiences. So when she reads a piece of literature like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber, which paints a highly negative picture of Mitty’s wife, the woman reader is forced to either misread the story and accept Mrs. Mitty as a domineering, mothering wife, or rebel against that picture and become angry at the society which sees her that way. Due to pre-existing sociosexual standards, women see characters, family structures, even societal structures from the bottom as an oppressed group rather than from a powerful position on the top, as men do.

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