reader-response criticism

American

[ree-der-ri-spahns krit-uh-siz-uhm] / ˈri dər rɪˌspɑns ˈkrɪt əˌsɪz əm /

noun

a school of literary criticism that emphasizes the role of the reader's interpretive activity in contributing to the meaning of a work, while taking into account the shaping of this interpretive activity by the reader's personal background and cultural context.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023