ABSTRACT
The central premise of the reading process is that the literary work exists in the transaction between a reader and a text. The active participatory role of readers encompasses—in conjunction with comprehension—discovering meaning, responding emotionally, developing interpretation. Readers are not passive spectators of the text but are active performers with the text. The reading process begins with the reader and words of the text. The reading process is reflective and recursive—a forwards-and-backwards exploration of the text—rather than linear (again, comparable to the writing process). The idea that the text fixed the reading purpose, assumed in the past, denies the dynamics of the reading process and belies the role of the reader who is neither passive nor neutral. The transactional nature of the reading act recognizes the mutuality of reader and text. Thus, validity and adequacy of interpretation are measured against the guidelines and constraints of the text.
