ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -reader-response theorists share two beliefs: (1) that the role of the reader cannot be omitted from our understanding of literature and (2) that readers do not passively consume the meaning presented to them by an objective literary text” (170).

Detailed explanation-2: -Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or “audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.

Detailed explanation-3: -Biographical criticism is often associated with historical-biographical criticism, a critical method that “sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author’s life and times".

Detailed explanation-4: -Feminist literary theory also suggests that the gender of the reader often affects our response to a text. For example, feminist critics may claim that certain male writers address their readers as if they were all men and exclude the female reader.