Written Communication Jul 1987

Literary Theory and the Reading Process: A Meeting of Perspectives

W. JOHN HARKER

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between current concepts of the reading process and contemporary theories of literary response. It is argued that text-based concepts of the reading process are highly isomorphic with the New Criticism that dominated literary theory from the 1930s to the 1960s, and that reader-based concepts of the reading process are equally isomorphic with the “reader-response” theories of literary understanding that have succeeded the New Criticism. It is maintained that the interactive formulation of the reading process that evolved from the conflict between text-based and reader-based formulations has been ignored by literary theorists to the detriment of developing literary theories that reflect the psychological reality of processing literary texts.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1987-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088387004003001
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Topics
literary studies
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