55 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
- 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.
Write as a Scholar
Criticize with Examples
- 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 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 that you are too ignorant or slow to understand and appreciate it.
The Structure of a Reader-Response Essay
- title of the work to which you are responding;
- the author; and
- the main thesis of the text.
- 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