Which criticism would analyze how a text's reception and meaning vary among readers?

Which criticism would analyze how a text's reception and meaning vary among readers?

• A. Historical Criticism
• B. Reader-Response Criticism
• C. Marxist Criticism
• D. Postcolonial Criticism

Answer: (B)

Readers bring their own experiences to a text, so its meaning shifts with each reader. This idea is at the heart of Reader-Response criticism, which treats interpretation as something that emerges from the reader–text interaction rather than solely from the author or the work itself. By focusing on how different readers—with different backgrounds, beliefs, and contexts—perceive characters, plots, and themes, it analyzes variations in reception and meaning across audiences and over time. Other approaches examine different forces shaping meaning, but not primarily the variation among readers. Historical criticism looks at the historical moment of the text's creation and the context that influenced it; Marxist criticism analyzes class, power, and economic factors in how a text is produced and interpreted; postcolonial criticism considers colonial histories, cultural hegemony, and the representation of oppressed groups.

Readers bring their own experiences to a text, so its meaning shifts with each reader. This idea is at the heart of Reader-Response criticism, which treats interpretation as something that emerges from the reader–text interaction rather than solely from the author or the work itself. By focusing on how different readers—with different backgrounds, beliefs, and contexts—perceive characters, plots, and themes, it analyzes variations in reception and meaning across audiences and over time. Other approaches examine different forces shaping meaning, but not primarily the variation among readers. Historical criticism looks at the historical moment of the text's creation and the context that influenced it; Marxist criticism analyzes class, power, and economic factors in how a text is produced and interpreted; postcolonial criticism considers colonial histories, cultural hegemony, and the representation of oppressed groups.