Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory describes reading involves a transaction between reader and what?

• A. Actor and audience
• B. Text
• C. Language and culture
• D. Genre and context

Answer: (B)

Reading with Rosenblatt is an active exchange between you and the text. The idea is that meaning doesn’t exist already in the words alone; you bring your own experiences, purposes, and prior knowledge, and the text offers language, imagery, and structures that invite you to interpret. Through this back-and-forth—your ideas responding to the cues in the text—the reading experience becomes personal and meaningful. The text is the partner in the transaction because it provides the material you interact with, while your background and goals shape what you take from it.

That’s why the text is the best answer. The other options describe influences or settings (how readers think about performance, the broader culture and language, or the situational genre), but they aren’t the thing your mind actively engages with to construct meaning in this theory.