Beginning of Essay
During the mid twentieth century, the literary community witnessed the descent of the New Criticism and the emergence of the reader response movement. The reader response movement sharply contrasts the theories of New Criticism in that it focuses on the importanc ....

Middle of Essay
.... underlying theme of this movement is the idea that the reader should be granted freedom to interpret a literary work in any way he/she likes. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his essay entitled "Why Write?", describes this best when he says "the writer appeals to the reader's freedom to collaborate in the production of his work" (627). Wolfgang Iser echoes this belief in the need for readers' freedom in his essay, "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach": "No author worth his salt will ever attempt to set the whole picture before his reader's eyes ... it is only by activating the reader's imagination that the author can hope to involve him and so ....