Reader-Response Criticism: A Test of Its Usefulness in a First-Year College Course in Writing About Literature

This book describes a nontraditional, non-authoritarian method for teaching students how to think and write about literature. It elucidates contemporary critical theories concerning the reader’s role in creating literary experience, and it explains how to use activities such as journal writing, composite interpretation, and stop-action reading to elicit original responses from students. Statistical measures and case studies document the effectiveness of this approach.