Reader-Response
Reader-response criticism is a literary theory that focuses on the reader's experience of the work rather than on the author or even the work itself. A response to other movements that attempted to erase the reader from the analysis, this theory began in the 1960s and '70s with American and German critics. It gives agency to the reader and critic by assuming that the reader's participation is necessary to create meaning in the text--and thus provides the reader with opportunities to make connections to personal experiences and prior knowledge while applying multiple lenses to the work. There are various schools of through within reader-response criticism, some of which give all the power to the reader and some which give the power of controlling the reader to the text, but they all remain focused on the readers' experience.
Reader-response criticism is a literary theory that focuses on the reader's experience of the work rather than on the author or even the work itself. A response to other movements that attempted to erase the reader from the analysis, this theory began in the 1960s and '70s with American and German critics. It gives agency to the reader and critic by assuming that the reader's participation is necessary to create meaning in the text--and thus provides the reader with opportunities to make connections to personal experiences and prior knowledge while applying multiple lenses to the work. There are various schools of through within reader-response criticism, some of which give all the power to the reader and some which give the power of controlling the reader to the text, but they all remain focused on the readers' experience.