Reader‐Response Theory

Abstract

This account of Reader-Response Theory begins by offering early views of reading in Aristotle's work on catharsis and diction, and Longinus on the sublime. It continues by drawing attention to the standard histories of reader response theorists, while elaborating an alternative tradition consisting of several empirical studies, that is, experimental work based on the analysis of the responses of real readers. This begins with evidence for the effects of foregrounding, studied by Miall and Kuiken (1994); the function shift in the verse of Shakespeare as identified in brain waves (ERPs) by Thierry et al. (2008); a reconsideration by Martindale and Dailey (1995) of the disappointing (but influential) study of the interpretation of poetry by I. A. Richards (1927); finally Bortolussi and Dixon (2003) showing that the rereading of a literary text increased their depth of appreciation measure.

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