From the Text to the Reader: An Application of Reader-Response Theory to Robert Browning’s "My Last Duchess"
Open Access
- 15 December 2020
- journal article
- Published by kulturarastirmalari in Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi
- No. 7,p. 196-209
- https://doi.org/10.46250/kulturder.828951
Abstract
Reader-response criticism as a reaction against new criticism has changed the focus from the text to the reader. The reader is no longer deemed a passive agent, but active, participating in the meaning-making process, as reading is a process during which the reader also experiences what the characters experience and feels with him/her. In this respect, the text and the reader interact with each other. Meaning is accordingly created out of this interaction and transaction. A multiplicity of meanings, perspectives and interpretations becomes possible in the process of reading. Each reading of a literary text produces different interpretations. Social, religious, political, psychological and cultural contextual factors and background of the reader have a strong potential to influence the interpretation. Accordingly, the characteristics of the interpretive community are influential in meaning-making. This study will, therefore, discuss reader-response criticism with specific emphasis on Iser’s theory (the implied reader and repertoire) and apply the reader-response theory to Robert Browning’s poem "My Last Duchess".Keywords
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