Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Prof in Persian Language & Literature, Guilan University, Rasht, Iran
Abstract
Author, text, and reader are a triad whose relationship has always been matter of consideration throughout the history of literary criticism. The text is nothing more than a set of signs, inviting the reader to construct the meaning of it. One of the controversial issues in reading and understanding the meaning of a text has always been whether the text itself provokes the reader’s act of interpretation or the reader’s own interpretive strategies impose solutions to the problems posed by the text. Before the recent reader-response theories, Umberto Eco in The Role of the Reader (1979), spoke of open and closed texts, defining open text as a text that allows multiple or mediated interpretation by the readers. In contrast, closed texts lead the reader to one correct and valid interpretation.Regarding the diversity of definitions of adolescence, the young adult novel has had various definitions as well, which are in relationship with young audiences. The adolescents define their identity in fluctuation between various binaries and challenge pre-existing meanings with openness. The young adult novel is, consequently, an arena of conflict and redefinition of meanings. It is necessary to reflect the intertwined relationships between signifiers and the signifieds of text in form and content, and to move towards polysemy and acceptance of multiple meanings by involving its audience in reading and interpretation process. Therefore, reader-response theories might be helpful in understanding the relationship between the adolescent reader and the texts written for them.
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