Reader-response criticism, as its name implies, focuses its attention on the reader’s experiences and interactions with a text. This approach to literature describes what goes on in the reader’s mind during the process of reading a text. Reader-response criticism thus calls attention to how we read and what influences our readings in terms of assumptions that are either met or not met.
However, reader-response criticism recognizes that we respond to texts not only as individuals but also as groups. Reader-response critics refer to these groups as “interpretive communities.” That is, groups united in a somewhat common or shared understanding of a given text. Therefore, after we have read and responded to Kindred, I want each of us to analyze the “interpretive community” that has developed in a final paper for our class.
The book Kindred by Octavia Butler’s http://a2eberts.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/4/6/13467575/kindred_.pdf
The Process—A successful paper will:
- Identify and analyze the reflections written by three of your classmates. You should begin the writing process for this paper by reading through and identifying student reflections that you find particularly interesting.
Three classmates reflection are provide in the uploaded file
- Develop and draft your paper. Requirements and expectations for your “interpretive community” analysis are as follows:
Your analysis should include three primary sections:
A first section (one to two paragraphs) that generalizes about the reading experience of your chosen community. What were common reading experiences among your chosen group of readers? Was there an aspect of the novel that they all found particularly engaging, exciting, confusing, unsatisfying, etc.? Was there a particular aspect of the form of the novel that they all commented on or responded to? Was there a dominant emotional response that they all described? Were there expectations they had that were or were not met?
A second section (one or two paragraphs) that generalizes about the interpretations of your chosen community. What were some common “readings” that they all offered? Did they respond to characters in the same way (e.g., did they all like one character? Did they all dislike another?)? What were the common themes that they identified? What were some common connections to outside concepts (e.g., other works of literature, current events, history, etc.) that these readers all made?
A third section (one to two paragraphs) that brings these two previous sections together to generalize about this interpretive community. What version of Kindred did they all seem to share? What aspects of the novel seem essential here—what characters, what scenes, what themes? What, based on your own reading experience, seems to have been left out? What does this tell you about this group of people: what assumptions and expectations did they seem to bring to this novel?
In addition to the above sections, your paper should, of course, have a general introduction and conclusion.
All of your analysis should rely on evidence from the reflections themselves. Therefore, you should quote from and cite key parts of each reflection. In the essay, please refer to each of the student readers by their last name and by the reflection number (1, 2, or 3). In addition, the reflections should be included in the Works Cited.
Guidelines:
Your response should:
be between 1200 and 1500 words, or approximately 4-5 typed pages
follow these formatting guidelines: double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-pt. font (Times New Roman, or similar), with an MLA-style heading, numbered pages, and properly formatted quotations. See our blackboard page for a sample paper.
include a properly formatted, MLA-style Works Cited page
Due dates:
Remember, this paper is worth 15% of your overall grade for the course.
Late assignments will not be accepted.
Reader-Response Paper: Model Prospectus
A prospectus is not a full draft, but instead is a brief outline of what you will write in your essay. Your prospectus should contain the following information:
1) A clear working thesis statement.
· Your thesis statement should provide your clear, arguable response to the essay prompt. For this paper, it will be a claim about the shape of the “interpretive community” that you have traced in this paper. You should address how people read this novel (e.g., what responses characterized their reading experiences) and how they interpreted this novel (e.g., what themes or formal elements they commented on most). It should also provide some sense of how you will demonstrate your arguable stance. In other words, your thesis should address “what” you will argue about this “inter
Sample Solution
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