Definition of Reader, as a Relative Concept, in Reader- Response Theories

AbstractTraditional literary criticism overlooked “reader” and his role in attributing a specific meaning to the text. This issue is important in literary texts as they possess a certain discourse, an exclusive feature of this genre. But act ually a text is written to be read and therefore the reader has a vital role in completing a text and giving it a new identity through the reading process he experiences. The reader has an active interaction with the written words which ultimately create the literary text. A silent piece of writing is activated once it is read by a reader. However “reader” is not defined clearly even by the reader-response theorists and it has remained a controversial issue among the diverse theorists of this literary approach. What is more, readers can be categorized depending on who defines them and the role they accept in the reading process which differs from one reader to another. At the same time factors defining a reader vary regarding their exclusive role in completing a literary text. There are even some experts who wish to distinguish a literary critic from a reader; even though they are both readers, yet of different categories