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Contexts for Criticism, 4/e
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Reader-Response Criticism: Audience as Context
Multiple Choice Quiz
1
What is an "implied reader"?
A)
the ideal audience envisioned by the author and to whom the work of literature is implicitly addressed
B)
a reader who embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect
C)
the ideal "average" reader who can approach a work of literature with no preconceived ideas about the author's life, the time of composition, etc.
D)
the ideal reader of a work of literature which is approximated over time by the successive responses of generations of actual readers
2
Depth psychology finds application in both genetic criticism and reader-response criticism. Which of the following studies would be considered an example of reader-response criticism?
A)
A study of Henry James' late style in terms of his fear of artistic "castration" following the disastrous London premiere of his play "Guy Domville" (where James was booed off the stage)
B)
A study of how the play-within-a-play in
Hamlet
not only "captures the conscience of the king," but also serves as an objective correlative for Hamlet's Oedipal complex
C)
A study of the ways
Hamlet
engages adolescent readers who are led to identify with the alienation of the title character
D)
A study of Hamlet's Oedipal guilt towards his murdered father as a reflection of Shakespeare's own response to the death of fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe
3
Critics have long disagreed over how to interpret Milton's portrayal of Satan in
Paradise Lost
. Which of the following theses would be considered an example of reader-response criticism?
A)
The fact that readers can so easily sympathize with Milton's Satan suggests that the meaning of "Paradise Lost" lies in the poem's capacity to read
us
(functioning as a litmus test, of sorts)
B)
Milton intended Satan to be read as a Promethean figure who would appeal to all readers at all times who believe in freedom of thought and the dignity and autonomy of the individual
C)
Milton wrote for an audience that would have shared his idiosyncratic theological beliefs; the task of the critic, then, is to reconstruct this 17
th
-century reader's perspective and to read the poem through that lens
D)
Satan is only one character among many in "Paradise Lost," and he should be read in the context of a didactic poem whose overall message is more important than the vividness of any one of its parts
4
Which of the following has
not
been offered by reader-response critics as a constraint upon interpretation:
A)
agreement within an "interpretive community"
B)
resonance with respect to given archetypes
C)
the rhetorical constraints upon the author at the time of composition
D)
the textually established predispositions of an "implied reader"
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