Literary Theory

RELATED TERMS: Narratology; Reception theory and reader response criticism; Interaction Design

Literary theory is the study and analysis of literature in general. Narratology can be considered a branch of literary theory.

More recent literary theory tends to move away from earlier critical approaches, for example, Russian Formalism, New Criticism and French structuralist narratology of the 1960s, by shifting emphasis towards the reader. In both reception theory, Rezeptionsästhetik, which has had its greatest impact in Germany, and reader-response criticism, associated mainly with American criticism, the role of the reader is seen as crucial. Continuity between these two strands of literary theory can be found through the work of Wolfgang Iser, who is commonly cited in both.

Insights from reception theory and reader-response criticism may prove useful in shaping interactions in interaction design, while taking interaction in the direction of narrative.

References

Iser, W. (1972) The reading process: A phenomenological approach, New Literary History, 3(2), pp. 279–299. doi: 10.2307/468316.

Iser, W. (1990) The Aesthetic and the imaginary, in The States of ‘Theory’: history, art, and critical discourse. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 201–220.

Newton, K. M. (ed.) (1997) Twentieth-century literary theory: a reader. 2nd edn. New York, NY: Macmillan Education.