Transactional Reader‑response theory
- 1. BY: Gelli B. Aguilar MAED- ELT
- 2. If there’s NO right or wrong answers in Reader- response reading, how should we give ratings to our student’s work?
- 3. Transactional Reader response Theory‑ LOUISE ROSENBLATT
- 4. Louise Rosenblatt 1904-2005 a University professor best known as a researcher into the teaching of literature developed intense interest in each reader's unique response to text when she started teaching literature in 1931 her views regarding literacy were influenced by John Dewey who was in the philosophy department at Columbia in the 1930s during World War II Rosenblatt worked for the United States Office of War Information, analysing reports concerning France, which at that time was controlled by the Germans
- 5. Transactional Reader- response Theory analyzes the transaction between text and reader the theory doesn’t reject the importance of the text in favor of the reader; rather claims that both are necessary in the production of meaning. it explains that there is a “transaction” between the reader and the text which enable the reader himself creates meaning
- 6. Transactional Reader- response Theory In order for “transaction” to occur, the approach to the text must be aesthetic rather than efferent. efferent reading = focus just on the information contained in the text aesthetic reading = experience a personal relationship, emotional subtleties of its language to the text and encourages us to make judgments Without the aesthetic approach, there could be no transaction between text and reader to analyze.
- 7. Transactional Reader- response Theory Example of efferent and aesthetic reading of “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller (1949) Efferent “a play about a traveling salesman who kills himself so that his son will receive his life insurance money”‑ Aesthetic “Willy Loman’s plight is powerfully evoked by the contrast between his small house, bathed in soft blue light, and the large, orange colored‑ apartment buildings that surround it”
- 9. Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1897 attended Oberlin College in Ohio and then transferred to Yale University, graduating in 1920 after spending a year in Rome, he took a job teaching French at a prep school in New Jersey and started writing published his first novel, The Cabala, in 1926 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) hurt by criticisms and frustrated by the failure of his 1934 novel Heaven’s My Destination, Wilder turned to playwriting
- 10. Background 1938 theatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize, and become one of the most performed American plays of the twentieth century the play is Wilder’s response to his critics tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners (New Hampshire ) between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens World War II was on the horizon when the play hit theaters in 1938. It was a time of tremendous international tension, and citizens across the globe suffered from fear and uncertainty. 22 January 1938- first performance
- 11. Characters STAGE MANAGER The host of the play and the dramatic equivalent of an omniscient narrator. Exercises control over the action of the play Occasionally assumes other roles, such as an old woman, a druggist, and a minister. GEORGE GIBBS Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs’s son A decent, upstanding young man, George is a high school baseball star who plans to attend the State Agricultural School after high school. Lover of Emily Webb
- 12. Characters EMILY WEBB Mr. and Mrs. Webb’s daughter and Wally’s older sister George’s schoolmate and next-door neighbor, then his fiancée, and later his wife an excellent student and a conscientious daughter Died after giving child birth and joins the group of dead souls in the local cemetery and attempts to return to the world of the living in Act III. DR. GIBBS George’s father and the town doctor a Civil War expert He and his family are neighbors to the Webbs His delivery of twins just before the play opens establishes the themes of birth, life, and daily activity
- 13. Characters MRS. GIBBS George’s mother and Dr. Gibbs’s wife desires to visit Paris at the same time wishes for a luxurious trip—a wish that is never fulfilled MR. WEBB Emily’s father and the publisher and editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel Mr. Webb’s report to the audience in Act I is both informative and interactive, as his question-and- answer session draws the audience physically into the action of the play
- 14. Characters MRS. WEBB Emily’s mother and Mr. Webb’s wife At first a no-nonsense woman later shows her innocent and caring nature, worrying during the wedding that she has not taught her daughter enough about marriage MRS. SOAMES A gossipy woman who sings in the choir along with Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs
- 15. Characters SIMON STIMSON The choirmaster, whose alcoholism and undisclosed “troubles” have been the subject of gossip in Grover’s Corners for quite some time Committed suicide by hanging himself and appeared in the group of dead in Act III REBECCA GIBBS George’s younger sister. Rebecca’s role is minor, but she does have one very significant scene with her brother.
- 16. Characters WALLY WEBB Emily’s younger brother. Wally dies young, the result of a burst appendix on a Boy Scout trip. He appeared among the group of dead souls in Act III HOWIE NEWSOME The local milkman He always appear in the morning scene in ACT I,II, and III
- 17. Characters JOE CROWELL & SI CROWELL The paperboys/brothers Joe’s routine of delivering papers to the same people each morning emphasizes the sameness of daily life in Grover’s Corners PROFESSOR WILLARD professor at the State University who gives the audience a report on Grover’s Corners appears once and then disappears His role in the play is to interact with the audience and to inform theatergoers of the specifics of life in Grover’s Corners
- 18. Characters CONSTABLE WARREN A local policeman. He keeps a watchful eye over the community His personal knowledge of and favor with the town’s citizens bespeaks the close-knit nature of the town. SAM CRAIG Emily Webb’s cousin, who has left Grover’s Corners to travel west but returns for Emily’s funeral in Act III His unawareness of the events that have occurred in Grover’s Corners during his absence parallels the audience’s own unawareness.
- 19. Characters JOE STODDARD the one who prepares Emily’s grave and remarks on how sad it is to bury young people
- 20. SETTING/Opening Scene the Stage Manager, who welcomes the audience to the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, early on a May morning in 1901 the stage is largely empty, except for some tables and chairs that represent the homes of the Gibbs and Webb families, the setting of most of the action in Act I The set remains sparse throughout the rest of the play the Stage Manager gives introduction
- 21. ACT 1 The activities of a typical day begin. Howie Newsome, the milkman, and Joe Crowell, Jr., the paperboy, make their delivery rounds. Dr. Gibbs returns from delivering a set of twins at one of the homes in town. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb make breakfast, send their children off to school, and meet in their gardens to gossip. The two women also discuss their modest ambitions, and Mrs. Gibbs reveals that she longs to visit Paris.
- 22. ACT 1 Throughout the play, the characters pantomime their activities and chores. Howie makes his milk deliveries, no horse appears onstage despite the fact that he frequently addresses his horse as “Bessie.” He does not actually hold anything in his hands, but he pantomimes carrying bottles of milk, and the sound of clinking milk bottles comes from offstage. Stage Manager interrupts the action. He calls Professor Willard and then Mr. Webb out onto the stage to tell the audience some basic facts about Grover’s Corners. Mr. Webb not only reports to the audience, but also takes questions from some “audience members” who are actually characters in the play seated in the audience.
- 23. ACT 1 Afternoon arrives, school lets out, and George Gibbs meets his neighbor Emily Webb outside the gate of her house. The Stage Manager thanks and dismisses Emily and Mrs. Webb, then launches into a discussion of a time capsule that will be placed in the foundation of a new bank building in town. He tells everyone that he wishes to put a copy of Our Town into this time capsule (a container holding historical records or objects) Now evening, a choir in the orchestra pit begins to sing “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds” lead by the choirmaster Simon Stimson. While George and Emily talk to each other through their open windows Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, and their gossipy friend Mrs. Soames return home from choir practice and chat about the choirmaster’s alcoholism
- 24. ACT 1 George and his sister Rebecca sit at a window and look outside. Rebecca ponders the position of Grover’s Corners within the vastness of the universe, which she believes is contained within “the Mind of God.” Night has fallen on Grover’s Corners, and the first act comes to an end.
- 25. ACT II three years later… on George and Emily’s wedding day George tries to visit his fiancée, but he is shooed away by Mr. and Mrs. Webb, who insist that it is bad luck for the groom to see the bride-to-be on the wedding day anytime before the ceremony Mrs. Webb goes upstairs to make sure Emily does not come downstairs. George is left alone with Mr. Webb. The young man and his future father-in-law awkwardly discuss marriage and how to be a virtuous husband.
- 26. ACT II The Stage Manager interjects and introduces a flashback to the previous year. George and Emily are on their way home from school. George has just been elected class president and Emily has just been elected secretary and treasurer. George has also become something of a local baseball star. The two stop at Mr. Morgan’s drugstore for ice-cream sodas and, over the course of their drink, admit their mutual affection George decides to scrap his plan of attending agriculture school in favor of staying in Grover’s Corners with Emily
- 27. ACT II We return to the day of the wedding in 1904. Both the bride and groom feel jittery, but their parents calm them down and the ceremony goes ahead as planned. Stage Manager acts as the clergyman. The newlyweds run out through the audience, and the second act ends with the Stage Manager’s announcement that it is time for another intermission.
- 28. ACT III Takes place nine years later… in a cemetery on a hilltop overlooking the town. Emily has died in childbirth and is about to be buried. The funeral party occupies the back of the stage. The most prominent characters in this act, the dead souls who already inhabit the cemetery, sit in chairs at the front of the stage. Among the dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames, Wally Webb, and Simon Stimson Emily joins the dead, but she misses her previous life and decides to go back and relive part of it
- 29. ACT III The other souls disapprove and advise Emily to stay in the cemetery. With the aid of the Stage Manager, Emily steps into the past, revisiting the morning of her twelfth birthday. Howie Newsome and Joe Crowell, Jr. make their deliveries as usual. Mrs. Webb gives her daughter some presents and calls to Mr. Webb. As Emily participates, she also watches the scene as an observer, noting her parents’ youth and beauty. Emily now has a nostalgic appreciation for everyday life that her parents and the other living characters do not share.
- 30. ACT III She becomes agonized by the beauty and transience of everyday life and demands to be taken back to the cemetery As Emily settles in among the dead souls, George lays prostrate by her tomb. “They don’t understand.” she says of the living. The stars come out over Grover’s Corners, and the play ends.
- 31. THEMES (Aesthetic mode) Life and birth- Dr. Gibbs delivery of twins just before the play opens establishes the themes of birth, life, and daily activity in the Grover’s Corner in which perhaps signals as the start of everything literally and figuratively. Love and Marriage- Wilder uses George and Emily’s relationship to ponder on things about love and marriage to emphasize on another stage of life; which is marrying. Transience of human life (Death)- Most of the characters dead souls appearances in Act III points out to one single theme; in which actions explains that death is inevitable for all human being and that life is indeed always unexpected.