Readers' varying interpretations of theme in short fiction

After reviewing arguments about the nature of thematic inferences and problems with previous empirical research, we report the results of a study examining both the process by which individual readers arrive at a fictional story's theme and the themes at which they arrive. Sixteen avid readers read two stories of microfiction paragraph by paragraph, commenting after each paragraph on the larger point the author might be making. At the end of each story, the participants stated a theme capturing the overall meaning of the story. The results showed that readers (1) differed substantially in their interpretations of the stories' themes, (2) can draw the same conclusion about a story and yet make very different thematic inferences while reading, and (3) appear to keep alive a number of interpretations about a story's meaning, concluding the overall theme only at the story's end. The results strongly suggest that themes do not reside in texts in any obvious way but are constructed by readers. The results also suggest that thematic inferences are not computed automatically, as part of comprehension, but rather later as acts of interpretation. ?? 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.