ABSTRACT
In text-reader interaction, response, interpretation, and reception are terms that are frequently used, sometimes interchangeably. In research on the reading of translations, two distinctions need to be made. Several strands of research on reader response and reception have shaped research on translation, each exerting its impact in a different manner. First among these is the Western theoretical tradition of thinking about readers relationships to the text. The recent profusion of research on reader response and audience response in literary and cultural studies, however, has produced new methodologies and terminologies, which, when transferred to translation research, open up new possibilities for the study of the real, rather than the imagined, reader. To bring translation research in line with current developments in other fields, one should study the reader relationship not only to translated literature but also to non-literary genres, especially new media forms. This opens up for consideration other types of readers and their diverse motivations.
