Formalist Criticism and Reader-Response Theory

Exploring the role of the reader in the activity of blogging

“…Despite the general inclination to situate reader-response theory in opposition to formalism, which posits that only the materiality of the text is significant, it actually developed from within formalism itself (Tompkins, cited in [3]). In the 1950's, reader-response theory branched out from formalist discourse under the auspices of Gibson's "mock reader" -the persona a reader should adopt to understand the text [3].…”

“…In the 1950's, reader-response theory branched out from formalist discourse under the auspices of Gibson's "mock reader" -the persona a reader should adopt to understand the text [3]. Thus a slight variation within formalism became the seed from which the reader and her or his interpretation gained significance.…”

“…In examining the activities that surround blog reading, this study is partially informed by ideas from reader-response theory [3,17], which help provide a general framework with which to analyze the act of reading blogs. This section provides a brief introduction to reader-response theory, situating it in the context of literary criticism, and describes how the theory is applied in this paper.…”

“…Reader-response theory, or reader-response criticism, cf. [3,17], focuses not on the literature itself but rather on the audience's response to, and interpretation of, the text. The reader is not a passive recipient of content, this critique argues, but rather engages in an active process of interpretation.…”

The Transformative Potential of Popular Television

“…We talk about consuming, appreciating, enjoying, viewing, reading. And yet, as literary theorists have demonstrated (Davis &Womack, 2002;Littau, 2006), the act of reading is far from passive; meaning is made by readers as much as by writers. In the case of television, it is made by viewers as well as by production teams, directors and script writers.…”