Reader response theory is a school of literary criticism and theory that asserts the reader's central role in creating the meaning of a text. It investigates the dynamic interaction between the reader and the literary work, emphasizing that meaning is not solely determined by the author's intent or the text's inherent structure but is actively constructed by the reader through their individual experiences, interpretive strategies, and engagement with the text during the reading process. This approach significantly shifted the focus of literary analysis from the author and the text to the subjective and performative aspects of reading.