This episode shifts the spotlight from the text to the individual who reads it. We explore Reader-Response Theory as a significant shift in literary criticism—one that recognises the reader as co-creator of meaning rather than a passive observer uncovering a single, fixed interpretation. Through the lenses of Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional model, Hans-Robert Jauss’s horizon of expectations, and Wolfgang Iser’s implied reader and interpretive “gaps,” we examine how meaning emerges through an active dialogue between reader and text.

We also investigate Stanley Fish’s theory of interpretive communities to see how culture, education, and shared reading contexts influence interpretation, and consider the psychologically inflected approaches of Norman Holland and David Bleich that connect reading to identity and emotional engagement. Along the way, we discuss the classroom applications of Reader-Response—journaling, guided discussions, and literature circles—as tools that foster student agency and deepen textual understanding.

Finally, we address the theory’s limitations and ongoing debates, including the risk of interpretive relativism. Taken together, these perspectives illuminate not only how we read, but how literature changes shape—again and again—in the minds of its readers.