First Blog Entry

           In the textbook " Literature and the Writing Process (Canadian Edition)" McMahan explains there are several critical approaches to interpreting literature. Out of these 8 approaches, the 'Reader Response' approach is the most appealing to myself. In this approach, a person is thought to bring their own personal experiences and thoughts to the text being presented. From this, a text can bring a different and unique meaning to every different person who reads it. This approach is most appealing to me, because it allows a unique viewpoint to each person. Although there can be several common themes among every reader,  every reader can give their own viewpoints that many people can relate or disagree to. It is less of a professional view, in the sense that it does not need outside work, and is not interpreted purely on facts, but what the article means to an individual.  A good example of this is on page 823 of the text stating:

                            "For example, when J. Alfred Prufrock asks, 'Do I dare to eat a peach?' one reader may think that Prufrock is worried about the embarrassing messiness of consuming a ripe peach, another may think that he fears looking greedy, and another may decide that the peach is a feminine symbol and Prufrock fears the sex act. All of these thoughts are defensible using other evidence within the poem, and all are probably projections of the reader's own fears."

This approach relies on the readers own interpretation along with the text prescribed. It lets a new viewpoint in that is not only just facts and universal meanings.



       "Literature and the Writing Process (Canadian Edition)" has many poems, all of which can be analyzed through the above approach of Reader Response.  The poem "Home Is So Sad" by Phillip Larkin is a good example for a Reader Response interpretation.  The poem is about the author who has had a trauma happen in their house, and they cannot put aside what has happened, a sexual assault , and the figurative 'theft' of innocence. The author has been unable to move anything from its position such as the pictures, cutlery, and a vase, that was used to hurt the author and by keeping everything in the same position they force themselves to relive it, stuck in a house that is not a home. "That vase." is the last line in the poem, was something close to the author that the assailant used against them, to hurt them mentally.