The Question of Meaning: A Theoretical Deliberation on Reader-Response Perspectives

Abstract

Meaning commands inexhaustible attention ever since critical consciousness manifested itself. Gearing up to a textual engagement for meaning, the role of the author, text, and the reader has alternately attracted attention. This paper focuses on a set of reader-response theories where the reader’s role is foregrounded in the negotiation of meaning. Accordingly, meaning has been proposed as a product of an ongoing and inconclusive process with the participation of the reader. The objective of this paper is to affirm the non-closure of meaning by pointing up the preoccupation of twentieth century theoretical propositions on reading such as Semiotics, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics; these theories throw insights on the dynamics of meaning during the textual engagement, and make the reader conscious of the meaning-making process; as such, the propositions point out the possibly multiple semantic directions characteristic of such processes in this enterprise; in addition, they pinpoint the differences precipitated in meaning during a text’s travel across space and time. This paper, at first, introduces these theories and their preoccupations; secondly, it discusses each of them in reference to their views on meaning; then, during the discussion, it points out the rich semantic possibilities that transpire during the triangular interaction among the author, text, and the reader. Finally, it affirms the notion that meaning is ever-changing1.