College Composition and Communication Feb 2005

The Reception of Reader-Response Theory

Patricia Harkin

Abstract

This essay offers a historical explanation for the place of reader-response theory in English studies. Reader-response was a part of two movements: the (elitist) theory boom of the 1970s and the (populist) political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. If the theory boom was to remain elitist, it had to deauthorize reader-response. If reader-response was to remain populist, it had to consent to and participate in that deauthorization. In the 1980s reader-response was popular among compositionists, even as it began to lose currency among theorists. Later, however, compositionists professionalized themselves by deemphasizing, or even ignoring, reading. Now, as the profession again considers including explicit instruction in reading in the introductory writing course, the thinkers who could help us most have faded from the discussion.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2005-02-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc20054001
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
first-year composition writing pedagogy
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Hutton et al. (2024)
    A Commonplace Problem: Uncovering Composition’s Tacit Axiologies of Reading
    College Composition and Communication
  2. King (2020)
    Metacognition or “B.S.”?
    Pedagogy
  3. Wang (2019)
    Tracing Connections and Disconnects: Reading, Writing, and Digital Literacies a…
    College Composition and Communication
  4. Carillo (2019)
    Navigating This Perfect Storm
    Pedagogy
  5. Elliot (2008)
    A Midrash for Louise Rosenblatt
    Rhetoric Review
Show all 8 →
  1. Evans et al. (2007)
    A break in the transaction: Examining students’ responses to digital texts
    Computers and Composition
  2. Webster (2006)
    Engaging Literature: Difficulty as an Entry to Reading and Writing
    Pedagogy
  3. Crawford (2006)
    Into the Difficulties, Out of the Gaps
    Pedagogy

References (0)

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