BEYOND TEXT THEORY - UNDERSTANDING LITERARY RESPONSE

Approaches to text comprehension that focus on propositional, inferent ial, and elaborative processes have often been considered capable of e xtension in principle to literary texts, such as stories or poems. How ever, we argue that literary response is influenced by stylistic featu res that result in defamiliarization; that defamiliarization evokes fe eling which, in turn, elicits personal perspectives and meanings; and that these aspects of literary response are not addressed by current t ext theories. The main differences between text theories and defamilia rization theory are discussed. We offer a historical perspective on th e theory of defamiliarization from Coleridge to the present day and me ntion some empirical studies that tend to support it.