Reception Theory

Reception Theory

Reception theory means that the viewer/reader interprets the meaning in different ways depending on their individual background, culture and life experiences. The meaning of the text is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. (explained in a paragraph)

The meaning is not in the the text but in the reading. (explained in a sentence)

Interpretation. (explained in a word)

 

Reception Theory is a version of the Reader Response Literary Theory. It originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in the 1960s.

 

 

‘People are not passive’

This approach of textual analysis has a focus on ‘negotiation’ and ‘opposition’ on part of the audience. This means that the viewer/reader interprets the meaning in different ways depending on their individual background, culture and life experiences.

The meaning of the text is created within the relationship between the text and the reader.

What do we interpret from a message?

Stuart Hall stressed the difference in interpretation of mass media depending on social background.

A model deriving Frank Parkin’s meaning systems:

 

 

Reception Models

-         Dominant reading: The reader fully shares the text’s code and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading.

-         Negotiated reading: The reader partially shares the text’s code and broadly accepts the preferred writing but sometimes resists and modifies it to a way that reflects their opinion.

-         Oppositional Reading: The social Situation of the reader places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code. They understand  the preferred reading but reject it.