Reading Western Visual Poetry from the Perspective of Reader-Response Criticism

Abstract

The Reader-Response Criticism theory holds that the major objective of literary criticism is to study readers' reading experience and attach importance to readers' subjective initiative in the reading process. When interpreting Western visual poetry, Peter Barry gives full play to his subjective initiative, divides visual poetry into three types, and expounds the connotation of visual poetry and the generating of poetic text meaning. This paper aims to comment on Peter Barry's interpretation and comments on visual poetry in "Concrete Canticles", and to reveal the connotation of poetic criticism combined with reader-response criticism theory.