Reader-response theory, a type of literary theory that arose in reaction to formalist literary criticism, has endeavored to shift the emphasis in the interpretation of literature from the text itself to the contributions of readers to the meaning of a text. ███
Reader-response theory ·Emphasizes what readers bring to meaning of a literary work
Reader-response theory has no standards and leads to multiple meanings of a text. Authors in fact intend one meaning and critics should try to find it.
Concession / Benefit ·Can lead to unfair interpretations, but also legitimate new interpretations
Passage Style
Critique or debate
18.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████
Question Type
Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
This is a Purpose in Context question. The author says that some critics’ interpretations have unfairly burdened past literature with contemporary ideologies to show a potential weakness of reader-response theory: looking at past works with a modern perspective. However, the author then contrasts this criticism with a positive aspect, showing that the reader-response theory allows new, legitimate understandings to develop.
a
to reinforce the ██████ ████ ████████████ ███████████████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████
Raising more questions than they can answer is something that the author says about complicated literary works, not about reader-based interpretations.
b
to confirm the █████████ ██ ███████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███████████████ ██ █████
The discussion in this section of the text is about reader-based interpretations, not about interpretations similar to reader-based interpretations. Additionally, this is a weakness of these interpretations, not a confirmation of the longevity of these interpretations.
c
to point out █ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ███████████████ ██████ █████████
While this is a flaw that the author identifies in the reader-response theory, the author follows this flaw with additional benefits of the reader-response theory. This shows that the author doesn’t think that this flaw makes the reader-response theory untenable.
d
to concede a █████ ████████ ██ ███████████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
This is the author’s purpose. The author thinks that it is unfair of these critics to apply contemporary ideologies to literature of the past, but the author goes on to show that the reader-response theory is still beneficial despite this weakness.
e
to suggest that ███████████████ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██ █ ████
The idea that the reader-response theory can encourage fragmented views of a work is a criticism from the formalists in P1, and is not related to the focus of this question.
Difficulty
85% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%140
148
75%156
Analysis
Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
Art
Critique or debate
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
3%
153
b
5%
155
c
2%
152
d
85%
165
e
5%
156
Question history
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