Subodh Bhattarai (English & Communication Notes - BBA/BBS/BBBS/BHM/BIM/BMS/MBA/MBS & +2)

Readers-Response criticism emerged as a form of literary analysis in the 1970''s, and remained a powerful force in the academy. However, critics have long been interested in the relationship between readers and literary texts. In the reader-response critical approach, the primary focus falls on the reader and the process of reading rather than on the author or the text. Rejecting the idea that there is a single, fixed meaning inherent in every literary work, this theory holds that the individual creates  his or her own meaning through a "transaction" with the text based on personal associations. Because all readers bring their own emotions, concerns, life experiences, and knowledge to their reading, each interpretation is subjective and unique. The central premise of all the schools within Reader-Criticism is this: The text does not and cannot interpret itself. To determine a text's meaning, one must become an active reader and a participant in the reading proce

During the twentieth century new mode of literary criticism developed. This criticism was developed by Ferdinand de Saussure , Gerole Gennette , Greims and Todorov . Structuralists gave priority to how the meaning of the text is produced rather than the meaning itself. Structuralism is a psychological approach that emphasize studying the elemental structures of consciousness. Structuralists view society and its rule as expressions of deep structures, often binary codes that express our primary natures. A systematic study of such codes is semiotics, which was later hijacked by  Post-structuralists  as evidence that language alone provides a true reality. Ferdinand de Saussure was the father of modern linguists. According to him, Sign =  Signifier/Signified . Signifier is the sound image whereas signified is concept image. It is possible to find cultural link between signifier and signified. Structuralists view that every literary work contains a structure. The structure might be

REFERENCE: http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/lit.crit.html New Criticism is one of several ways of looking at and analyzing literature. It is a form of criticism that gives importance to the textual properties of the text. Close reading of the text is theory of New Criticism. According to this theory, we should judge books the same way. Rather than worrying about the author's background or our own reactions to a book, we should evaluate it based  only on the text itself . New Criticism went on to become a popular method of literary analysis throughout the middle of the twentieth century. New critical approach focuses the attention on the literary text as the only sources of interpretation. Rather than giving importance to historical background, social background and biographical background; New Critics give importance to the textual elements. When the critics value plot, character, language, form, image and so on, it is the new critical approach of interpreting th