and focus on how readers interact with texts emotionally and psychologically. This approach emphasizes that meaning isn't fixed within a text but created through the reader's engagement, influenced by their background and interpretive community.
's concept of challenges the idea of in texts. Instead, he argues that readers from similar backgrounds tend to interpret texts in similar ways, highlighting the subjective nature of literary interpretation.
Affective Stylistics and Reader-Response Theory
Affective stylistics in reader-response theory
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Branch of reader-response theory focusing on emotional and psychological effects of text on reader
Emphasizes reader's subjective experience and interpretation
Meaning created through reader's interaction with text, not inherent
Key proponents include Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser
Explores how (language, style, structure) evoke emotional responses in reader
Emotional responses shape reader's interpretation and understanding
Examples: Figurative language (metaphors, similes), tone, pacing, narrative structure
Interpretive communities of Stanley Fish
Concept introduced in essay "Interpreting the Variorum"
Groups of readers sharing similar assumptions, values, and strategies for interpreting texts
Shaped by factors like , ,
Example: Feminist interpretive community may focus on gender roles and power dynamics in texts
Individual reader's interpretation influenced by their interpretive community
Readers within same community likely to have similar interpretations
Example: Marxist interpretive community may interpret texts through lens of class struggle and economic forces
Challenges idea of single, objective meaning in text
Meaning constructed through interaction between text and reader, mediated by reader's interpretive community
Fish's challenge to objective meaning
Challenges traditional notion of objective meaning inherent or fixed within text
Meaning created through reader's interpretation, influenced by interpretive community and subjective experiences
No single, correct interpretation
Different interpretive communities may have different, equally valid interpretations
Undermines concept of
Author's intended meaning not necessarily same as meaning constructed by reader
Example: Author may intend a character to be sympathetic, but reader may interpret them as unlikeable based on their own experiences and values
Application of affective stylistics
Consider how formal features evoke emotional responses in reader
Example: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Narrator's repetitive language and frantic tone create anxiety and unease
Short, choppy sentences and obsessive focus on "vulture eye" contribute to growing dread
Structure, with building tension and abrupt climax, contributes to
Reader experiences relief and catharsis when narrator confesses
Analyzing how stylistic choices shape reader's emotional experience demonstrates principles of affective stylistics
Reader's interpretation influenced by emotional response to text, shaped by formal features of writing
Examples of formal features: Word choice, sentence structure, narrative voice, imagery