Every theory has its pet names. What does Reader-Response Theory think of literature, authors, and readers?
What is literature?
Literature provides us with texts, and we make meaning out of those texts by interacting with them as readers.
What is an author?
An author gives us a text that we readers then re-create through our own interpretations. An author gives us the outline, but it's the reader who colors in that outline.
What is a reader?
A reader actively constructs a text through the process of reading. A reader is as important as the author in making a literary text because each reader remakes a text through his or her interpretation.