ABSTRACT
This short concluding chapter argues for a reception-informed literary criticism: a critical approach structured by an awareness that our own reading is historically situated, selective and co-productive of the very object it purports to analyse. Reception-informed criticism accordingly does not seek to establish a single correct interpretation, but proceeds on the basis of an engagement with other possible readings and readers. Such an approach involves not just producing and defending interpretations of texts, but accounting for the interpretative strategies we have used, as well as a willingness to bring those strategies into dialogue with others’, without necessarily seeking consensus. It entails both a generosity and an openness towards other positions, and a sharpening of our own interpretations in response to those of others.
