How Do You Use Reader Response Theory

reader-response theorists share two beliefs: 1) that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and 2) that readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text; rather they actively make the meaning they find in literature” (154).

Why is reader response theory useful?

Using a reader response approach helps secondary students become critical readers and thinkers because they are not simply told how to think about a text, but must justify their multiple interpretations of a text using textual evidence and support.

What is a reading response example?

The Purpose of Reader-Response 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.