Analysis #3
March 22, 2011

Reader-Response Theory

          Reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and ‘70s mainly in America and Germany as a literary theory that focus’ on the reader to create the meaning through their interpretation. This theory could be viewed as a performing art in that the reader creates his/her own unique text-related performance. This technique is in complete opposition of formalism and the New Criticism where only the text is considered part of the meaning. This stipulation of the New Critics has held firm even into postmodern criticism.
          I chose to analyze the short story, “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes. It is about a young boy who tries to snatch a woman’s purse and finds himself in a situation that he never expected—washing his face, eating dinner, and receiving money to buy what he wanted instead of stealing money. It allows the reader to use their creativity in regard to each occurring event yet focus on the need to teach the boy a lesson about integrity through the gift of wisdom mingled with kindness. This portrays the two poles of literary work—one being the artistic pole of the author’s text and the other, the aesthetic pole of the reader that is accomplished through realization. For this to happen interaction between the text and the reader must transpire in order to view the psychoanalytical structure of communication revealing the differences and similarities to be able to focus on the problem. Langston Hughes did this in her short story when Mrs. Jones stated that she had experiences when she was young too.
          A narration has four perspectives: the narrator, the characters, the plot, and the fictitious reader, but not just one is the meaning. It requires a constant intertwining of all four to produce the meaning through the reader. Wolfgang Iser said, “The theme of one moment becomes the background against which the next segment takes on its actuality, and so on" (Iser, Norton 1529). Blanks are the joints of the text that prompts the reader to form ideations after which they dissipate. All of these vacancies give the reader space to build and modify different themes producing the final aesthetic object of the text. In this way, the decision becomes that of the reader instead of the author.
          “Thank You, M’am” allows blanks throughout so that the reader can apply his/her creativity in each event thereby making it personal. Ms. Jones teaches the boy integrity by using life experiences to view the incident and understanding and wisdom as the disciplinary factor. Her personal experiences gave her a good perception for handling the situation in the proper manner. The ending allows your own conclusion just as Wolfgang Iser intended!
            There are two poems that stand out in my mind which allows the endings the choice of the reader. One is “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright in 1963. The creative ability in this poem leaves the reader contemplating the actual meaning. The final sentence “I have wasted my life” is a brilliant maneuver. The second poem is “The Bear” by Galway Kinnell in 1968. This poem is quite graphic throughout, but the final four sentences—“ the rest of my days I spend wandering: wondering what, anyway, was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that poetry, by which I lived?” keeps the mind churning for the meaning. These two poems coincide with the reader-response criticism that we just learned about. I really enjoyed this analysis
Word Count: 600

"Thank You, Ma'm"

by Langston Hughes

Works Cited

Brunner, Edward. “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s

          Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.”
          Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Cary Nelson.  New York.
          Oxford University Press. 2000.  Page 891.

Brunner, Edward. “The Bear.” Anthology of Modern American Poetry. 

         Cary Nelson. New York. Oxford University Press. 2000. Page 909.

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

         New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.

McManus, Barbara.  “Reader-Response Criticism Notes.” October 1998.

         Brock University and Alberta University. 21 March 2011.      

         http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/readercrit.html 

Phoenixfilmandvideo. “Thank You, M’am.” YouTube.com. YouTube,

          7 January, 2008. Web. 22 March 2011.

“Reader-Response Criticism.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia,

          15 November 2010. Web. 21 March 2011.