English Literature And Theory This blog contains the explanation of various critical theories that provide a new insight to view literature and interpretation of various literary texts.

This theory argues that there is no literary text beyond the meanings created by the reader's interpretation. To put in other words, the text which the critic analyzes is not the literary work but the written response of the readers. To understand how there is no literary text beyond the meanings created by readers' interpretations; we need to understand the concept of David Bleich and how he defines the literary text. Like many other reader- response critics, he differentiates between real objects and symbolic objects.

Real objects are physical objects such as tables, chairs, cars, books and the like.

The experience created when someone reads the printed passage of the text like language itself is symbolic object as it occurs not in physical world but in the conceptual world(in the mind of readers). This is why Bleich calls reading - the feelings, associations, and memories that occur as we react subjectively to the printed words on the page i.e. symbolization. Our perception and reading experience create a symbolic world in our mind as we read, so, when we interpret the meaning of the text, we are actually interpreting the meaning of our symbolization. If we are interpreting the meaning of our own conceptual experience, it is an act of interpretation of re-symbolization. Re-symbolization occurs when our experience of the text produces in us a desire for explanation. Our evaluation of the text's quality is also an act of re-symbolization. Actually, we don't like or dislike a text; rather we like or dislike our symbolization of it. Hence, the text we talk about is not really a text on the page: it is the text in our mind.