答案:1) A general term for those kinds of modem criticism and literary theory that focus on the response of readers to literary works, rather than on the works themselves considered as self-contained entities. 2) It is not a single agreed theory so much as a shared concern with a set of problems involving the extent and nature of readers’ contribution to the meanings of literary works, approached from various positions including those of structuralism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. 3) The common factor is a shift from the description of texts in terms of their inherent properties to a discussion of the production of meanings within the reading process.