The Quality of the Conceptual Foundations of the Theory of the Reader's Response in Terms of its Intellectual Dimensions

The present study investigates the quality of the conceptual foundations of Reader's Response Theory in light of its intellectual aspects, using the analytical descriptive approach. Such multifaceted conceptual foundations are assessed in order to reveal their quality through considering their goals in criticizing and analyzing literary texts, and according to a systematic approach based on the reader. The study concludes that the Reader's Response Theory obtained its foundations from different intellectual and epistemological roots within a systematic, evolutionary and gradual framework, until it reached its comprehensive form in terms of its quality. The theory in question also acquired its foundations from both historical and psychological approaches, and also from the textual linguistic approaches, like Formalism and Structuralism. It also made use of the multifaceted hermeneutic approach, which broadened its horizons for readers to analyze and criticize literary texts.