Focuses on “reader” (or viewer) responses to “texts” ( or a work of art)

Viewer is not only to respond, but to analyze one’s response

Offers ideas that can be helpful in a classroom

The purpose for which something is read (or viewed) has an effect on the response one has to the work.

Louise Rosenblatt› Transaction between Artwork and Viewer› As a work of art is viewed, it acts as a

“stimulus” and one responds in a personal way.

› Previous works of art, or “encounters”, knowledge, and even the way we feel physically will influence one’s response.

There are two ways to approach a work of art.

Aesthetic-there is a personal relationship to the work. This allows for judgments to be made.

Efferent-one is gathering information, facts and ideas.

In order for “transaction” to occur, the work must be approached in the aesthetic mode.

Determinate Meaning› The Facts of the text

Indeterminate Meaning› The “gaps” or the things that could be

explained in multiple ways. › Invites viewers to create an interpretation.

Stanley Fish A Literary Text (or work of art) is an

event that occurs in time. It comes into being as it is read (or viewed).

One is “Affected” while in the process of viewing the work.

Meaning! What does this sentence mean? What does this sentence say? Reader (or viewer) moves from certainty to uncertainty.

David Bleich Reader responses are the text.

› There is no text (or work) beyond the meanings created by readers’ (or viewers) interpretations.

› The work the critic analyzes is not the literary work but the written response of readers.

REAL OBJECTS› Chairs, tables, even the paper, canvas, or

book in which one encounters a work of art.

SYMBOLIC OBJECTS› The experience created when someone

reads or views a work. The viewer creates the imagery in their mind. They “picture” things. So, if when we interpret a work, we are really

interpreting the meaning of our own symbolization. Re-symbolization occurs after our experience, when we desire an explanation.

Understand that:› Subjective Criticism-all knowledge is

subjective. The perceived can’t be separated from the perceiver.

› Objective-what a community believes to be objectively true.

“Truth” isn’t an objective reality waiting to be discovered, it’s constructed by communities of people to fulfill specific needs of the community (Historical, sociological, psychological)

Students are asked to write a response statement after reading or viewing a work.

Every statement is to be “useful into knowledge about the reading (or viewing) experience

Experience Oriented statements include judgments/reactions to the text (or the artwork).

Experience Oriented statement is analyzed in a “response-analysis” statement.

“There’s a big difference between knowing what you like and understanding your taste”

Normand Holland Focus on what readers’ interpretations

reveal about themselves rather than the text (Or work of art)

Identity Theme› Coping strategies/psychological conflicts

3 Modes› Defense› Fantasy› Transformation

Stanley Fish- Later Years Interpretive Community

› Can be anything from a group of students to a group of well educated theorists.

› They evolve over time› Communities affect the interpretation of a

work.

“No Interpretation, and therefore no form of (Literary) criticism can claim to reveal what is in a (Text)”

Louise Nevelson- Claus Oldenburg-

His own interest in the power of everyday objects was influenced by by his mother's fascination with such things. The Oldenburgs emigrated from Sweden when Claes, born in 1929, was a little boy. His mother made a scrapbook of American objects that entranced her. He still has it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/culture/2009/05/claes-oldenberg-at-the-whitney.html#ixzz0dxONt3d9

"In my childhood things had a clear personality and shape," he said. "Today everything is getting abstract. Everything that's tangible and visible is disappearing -- that's hard for artists to deal with.”

Given his use of everyday objects which evoke memories/meanings for individual viewers.

Given that those objects are enlarged and create a new experience for the viewer.

Given that the images that he chooses from American Culture may evoke an assortment of responses from the viewer.

Made Fun of Art Galleries by using a store space, where any window shopper would come in.

All objects relate to the human being

Unusable/Decorative rather than functional.

“Structuralist” piece of food”

Oldenburg

“I’d just as soon eat it as look at it”

Oldenburg

Seemingly more in the “Feminist” realm

her work is not easily allied with any one movement

Nevelson used themes connected to her complicated past, fractious present, and anticipated future

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/nevelson

"When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."

“Black Cord”

"I have made my world," she said, "and it is a much better world than I ever saw outside."

“Nevelson was aware of her standing as a foreigner, until she came to embrace this feeling of "otherness" and used it to advance her work”

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/nevelson As an immigrant, does

her work connect with other viewers who may have similar experiences, given that America is a “Melting Pot”?

Do readers respond more to the names of her works, or to the sculptures initially?“Dawn’s Presence”

"It is as if her works were three-dimensional drawings of realities created by the viewers themselves; they were prompts for the imagination.”› Arthur C.Danto

“Julie” by Julie Fritz as part of a pilgrimage box sculpture series

Each image depicted has an influence on the people of Haiti who practice Iwa.

“The Iwa are constantly reinvented according to the realities of today’s world.” › School Arts Magazine

May/June 2000