Literary Theory and the Reading Process

Written Communication Jul 1987

Literary Theory and the Reading Process

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
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multilingual writers

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Bleich, D.

Subjective criticism

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Holland, N.

Poems in persons: An introduction to the psychoanalysis of literature

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10.1016/0010-0285(74)90015-2

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Lesgold, A. M.

Interactive processes in reading

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10.2307/468372

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Suleiman, S.

The reader in the text: Essays on audience and interpretation

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Tompkins, J. P.

Reader response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism

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