The main idea behind this theory is that, "the literary work is produced by the reader in response to the text"" (Harker 30). .
Wolfgang Iser theorizes concepts concerning the determinate and indeterminate meanings a text offers and their effects on the reader. Iser uses the terms determinate and indeterminate, other wise known as indeterminacy, as a way to explain Rosenblatt's "blueprint " concept in his terms. Determinate meaning represents the things that are obviously portrayed such as facts, particular plot events, and so on; on the other hand, there is indeterminacy, which are the actions that either are not conveyed clearly or that have various explanations to account for. These two often interact such that the reader continuously undergoes several events such as retrospection, anticipation, fulfillment or disappointment, and revision" (Tyson 174). These are the results of indeterminacy; more specifically, how it leaves "blanks " in the text that the reader needs to fill using prior knowledge. Furthermore, this initiates "a linear and time-ordered process of '"consistency building," " for the reader must fill the blanks in order to make sense of the text (Harker 31). Iser's overall conviction concerning reader-response criticism is that the reader's interpretations are directed by the text itself and their consciousness creates meaning as they encounter gaps (Tyson 174; Harkin 412). .
The Social Reader-Response Theory is based upon Stanley Fish's concept of "interpretive communities: groups of readers that share their strategies for reading, principles, and interpretive assumptions with each other (Siegel). This theory supports that not only can readers belong to various communities at one time, but also that they all arrive at the text inclined to not stray from the group. Thus they will interpret the text a specific manner established by the groups interpretive strategies at that moment (Tyson 185).
