A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories. NCTE Teacher's Introduction Series. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Ill
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 355 523 CS 213 727 AUTHOR Beach, Richard TITLE A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories. NCTE Teacher's Introduction Series. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Ill. REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5018-7; ISSN-1059-0331 PUB DATE 93 NOTE 215p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 50187-0015, $9.95 members; $12.95 non-members). PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) Guides - Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *College English; English Curriculum; *English Instruction; Higher Education; High Schools; *Literary Criticism; *Literature Appreciation; *Reader Response; Reader Text Relationship; Teaching Methods; Theory Practice Relationship IDENTIFIERS English Teachers; *Literary Theory ABSTRACT This book offers teachers a convenientmeans of broadening their understanding of reader response theory and criticism and applying this theory to the teaching of literature in high school and college classrooms. The book is designed toarouse individual teachers' interest in reader response theory andencourage them to apply it to their teaching. The book covers the various branches of reader response theory, the key ideas of itsmany proponents, and the advantages and disadvantages of each branch of theory as perceived by critics. Individual chapters include: (1) Introduction; (2) Textual Theories of Response; (3) Experiential Theories of Response; (4) Psychological Theories of Response; (5) Social Theories of Response; (6) Cultural Theories of Response;and (7) Applying Theory to Practice: Making Decisionsabout Eliciting Response. (A glossary of key terms in readerresponse theory along with an extensive bibliography covering the many facets of the entire field are appended.)(HB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** r.. MR U $ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Once o Educationi Reteerch ono improvement MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) de'.This opcument has Peen reoroClucecl as LY 1 1 a ii.t.u4-e i rec from me Demon or organization originating it 1 Minor crianges nave wen mace to improve reprOduCtiOn cluenty Poolts Of yaw or otmons memoin thisclocu- TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ment clo not nocsserav represent official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" OERI poison or votive Richard Beach I BEST COPY AVA LE A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories . I.) College Section Committee Tilly Warnock, Chair University of Wyoming Lil Brannon SUNY at Albany Doris 0. Ginn, CCCC Representative Jackson State University Brenda M. Greene Medgar Evers College, CUNY Linda H. Peterson Yale University James F. Slevin Georgetown University Joseph F. Trimmer Ball State University Art Young Clemson University James Raymond, ex officio University of Alabama H. Thomas McCracken, CEE Representative Youngstown State University Janet Emig, Executive Committee Liaison Rutgers University A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories Richard Beach University of Minnesota NCTE Teacher's Introduction Series National Council of Teachers of English 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 NCTE Editorial Board: Richard Abrahamson, Celia Genishi, Joyce Kinkead, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Gladys V. Veidemanis, Charles Suhor, Chair, ex officio, Michael Spooner, ex officio Staff Editor: David A. Hamburg Interior Design: Tom Kovacs for TGK Design Cover Design: Barbara Yale-Read NCTE Stock Number 50187-3050 © 1993 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beach, Richard. A teacher's introduction to reader-response theories / Richard Beach. p. cm. (NCTE teacher's introduction series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8141-5018-7 1. Reader-response criticism.2. LiteratureStudy and teaching (Secondary)3. LiteratureStudy and teaching (Higher)I. Title. II. Series. PN98.R3B431993 801'.95dc20 92-38891 CIP Contents Acknowledgments vii Foreword ix 1. Introduction 1 2. Textual Theories of Response 15 3. Experiential Theories of Response 49 4. Psychological Theories cf Response 71 5. Social Theories of Response 103 6. Cultural Theories of Response 125 7. Applying Theory to Practice: MakingDecisions about Eliciting Response 153 Glossary 163 Bibliography 167 Index 201 Author 209 Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge the following people for their helpful comments and suggestions: Philip Anderson, Karen Ebert Armstrong, Patrick Dias, Michael Hancher, Susan Hynds, and Alan Purves. I also want to thank my original coauthor, Russell Hunt, for his contributions prior to his withdrawal from the project to become an academic vice president. vii Foreword A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories is the third in a series of books that are especially useful to teachers of English and language arts at all levels. Ours is a wide-ranging discipline, and important scholarly developments in various aspects of our field can be highly complex, not to mention voluminous. We often wish we had the time to take courses or do extended personal reading in topics such as deconstruction, psycholinguistics, rhetorical theory, and the like. Realistically, each of us can read intensively and extensively only in those areas that are of special interest to us or that are most closely related to our work. The Teacher's Introduction Series, then, is geared toward the intellectually curious teacher who would like to get an initial, lucid glance into rich areas of scholarship in our discipline. Let me stress three things that are not intended in A Teacher's Introduction to Reader-Response Theories and in other books in this series. First, the books are in no way shortcuts to in-depth knowledge of any field. Rather, these straigatforward treatments are intended to provide introductions to major ideas in the field and to whet the appetite for further reading. Second, the books do not aim to "dumb down" complicated ideas, sanitizing them for an imagined "average reader!' Many of the ideas are quite challenging, and we don't seek to patronize the reader by watering them down. Third, we don't want to send the message that every subject which is important to English and language arts teachers should be taught directly in the classroom. The personal enrichment of the teacher is paramount here. A great deal of misery might have been avoided in the 1960s if teachers had been doubly urged to learn about grammars new and oldthat's part of being a well-rounded teacherbut to avoid bringing their new insights, tree diagrams and all, directly into the classroom. We are grateful to Richard Beach for taking on the formidable work of writing so lucidly about the complexities of reader-response theories. We welcome your comments on the Teacher's Introduction concept. Charles Suhor Deputy Executive Director, NCTE ix 1 Introduction Some revolutions occur quietly: no manifestoes, no marching and singing, no tumult in the streets; simply a shift in perspective, a new way of seeing what had always been there. [We] have been witnessing just such a change in the field of literary theory and criticism. The words "reader" and "audience," once relegated to the status of the unproblematic and obvious have acceded to a starring role. Susan Suleiman, The Reader in the Text Among many dramatic changes in literary theory over the past thirty years, one of the most striking has been the growing prominence of what has come to be called reader-response criticism. Building on M. H. Abrams's well-known "triangle" of author, work, and reader, Terry Eagleton has in fact characterized the history of modern literary theory as occurring in three stages: a Romantic "preoccupation with the author," a New Critical "exclusive concern with the text;' and finally, "a marked shift of attention to the reader over recent years" (1983, 74). The various theories of reader response to be surveyed in this book could be somewhat loosely characterized as sharing a concern with how readers make meaning from their experience with the text. While literary criticism is equally concerned with making meaning, the focus is generally more on extracting meaning from the text rather than making explicit the processes by which readers, or the critic, make meaning. In some cases, they refer to, or characterize, a hypo- thetical reader's responses; less commonly, the responses of actual readers are cited as evidence for claims about the reader/text trans- action. These theories therefore assume that the text cannot be under- stood or analyzed as an isolated entity. Itis often assumed that reader-response criticism represents a relatively unified position. It is particularly tempting to slip into this assumption when the reader-response position is contrasted to the limitations of