"Earlier ideas of literature held that a book or poem has an objective quality; it holds the meanings created by the author, and the reader has the responsibility to tease out these meanings during the act of reading. When at school we read a play by Shakespeare or analyzed a poem by Milton, we were told to uncover the various images, metaphors, and figures of speech that act as clues to the underlying meaning intended by the author.
The postmodern approach suggests that reading is more of a creative act in which readers create and generate meanings out of their own experience and history of reading. Likewise the author writes within the context of the whole history of literature and the multiple associations of language. Hence the author is no longer the final voice of authority, the true "onlie begetter." The reader is no longer just the passive receiver of information bu the one who gives the text its life."
