Week 11: Reading "The Arrival" using Reader Response

Reader response theorists distinguish between one’s first read of the text in which the meaning unfolds as one moves through the text and subsequent reads in which the reader has a sense of the whole before moving through the text.


One strategy for reading The Arrival might be to:

• Use post-it notes to mark what you notice/understand as you do your initial reading.
• Reread the text and use a different color post-it to mark what you notice during your 2nd+ reading.
• Or, use different colors to mark visual themes.

In your paper, you might ask questions like: What story did I tell as I read? How does the text invite and shape that story? What assumptions/knowledge/reading strategies, etc. did I use to animate the text?

Reader response criticism varies a great deal in emphasis, so focus on something that intruigued you about the text and use whatever tools help you explore that idea in depth!

On Thursday we'll hear from the post-colonial theory group!