Intended Audience
Criticism
By: Rachel Stewart
The Who
Intended Audience Criticism
Who is the author catering to? Intended groups can be broad or narrow.
When creating a work, authors often have a specific audience in mind. Even though literature can be read by all people, they can tailor their works to be more appealing to a certain demographic. Examining the author's intended audience can reveal things about the text, the author, and the readers of the work.
The Why
Why does the author want this specific audience to see her work?
The How
How does the intended audience affect the content and meanings present in the story?
Criticism Similarities
Reader-Response
Historical Criticism
Moral Criticism
Both criticisms focus on the readers (Enriquez), but Intended Audience focuses on readers by how they are influenced by the author.
Historical context is very important when analyzing an author's intention (Mambrol), but there are non-historical factors in play as well.
Like Moral criticism, Intended Audience looks into the author's intentions and potential motives for the story (Ugbogbo).
Favorites
Applicability
Favorites of mine with content changed by the intended audience: - Lord of the Flies (William Golding) - Fur Elise (Ludwig van Beethoven) - The Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo) - The Crucible (Arthur Miller) - Fallout (Amazon Prime and Bethesda) - Journey into Mystery 2011 (Marvel)
Intended-Audience criticism is widely applicable, even to presentations like this one. - The author (myself) has an intended audience of this English Composition class. - The reasoning for this subject is partially due to my experiences (love of analyzing context in narratives) and partially from common misconceptions I have seen. - This affects the content of the presentation by assuming that the audience is already aware of concepts that I am covering, and they have passing knowledge of me.
The author's upbringing and culture often affects their audience intent!
Example: The Art of War
- The Art of War's intended audience was Chinese generals, many of whom were from wealthy families with little battlefield experience.
- Some concepts explained in the book seem very simple, but upon examination, make sense when applied to inexperienced generals.
Example: The Hunger Games
- The Hunger Games' intended audience is young adults.
- The Hunger Games' content includes ideas about corruption, exploitation, oppression, and propaganda.
- By targeting younger audiences, Suzanne Collins introduces these ideas, creating more awareness of their presence in reality.
&
Works Cited
Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Thompkins. “Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism.” Purdue Owl, Purdue University, 8 July 2014, https://dochub.com/4tugakids/6mO8oy7KpvqYyPlwqg5p9J/purdue-owl-literary-theory-pdf?dt=x5js4KPwkFHj5a7n6YB_.Enriquez, Grace. “‘I Don’t Want to Finish This Book!’, Or A Posthumanist View of Affect, Reader Response, and Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 53, no. 3, Sept. 2022, pp. 313–26. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09501-z.Mambrol, Nasrullah. “New Historicism.” Literariness, 22 October 2020, https://literariness.org/2020/10/22/new-historicism/.Ugbogbo, Helen. “THE MORAL APPROACH TO LITERARY CRITICISM.” Innovative Journal of Social Science, Arts and Management, vol. 12, no. 2, 2024, pp. 99-106, https://bwjournal.org/index.php/bsjournal/article/download/2200/1877/1482.
Intended Audience
Rachel Stewart
Created on February 18, 2026
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Transcript
Intended Audience
Criticism
By: Rachel Stewart
The Who
Intended Audience Criticism
Who is the author catering to? Intended groups can be broad or narrow.
When creating a work, authors often have a specific audience in mind. Even though literature can be read by all people, they can tailor their works to be more appealing to a certain demographic. Examining the author's intended audience can reveal things about the text, the author, and the readers of the work.
The Why
Why does the author want this specific audience to see her work?
The How
How does the intended audience affect the content and meanings present in the story?
Criticism Similarities
Reader-Response
Historical Criticism
Moral Criticism
Both criticisms focus on the readers (Enriquez), but Intended Audience focuses on readers by how they are influenced by the author.
Historical context is very important when analyzing an author's intention (Mambrol), but there are non-historical factors in play as well.
Like Moral criticism, Intended Audience looks into the author's intentions and potential motives for the story (Ugbogbo).
Favorites
Applicability
Favorites of mine with content changed by the intended audience: - Lord of the Flies (William Golding) - Fur Elise (Ludwig van Beethoven) - The Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo) - The Crucible (Arthur Miller) - Fallout (Amazon Prime and Bethesda) - Journey into Mystery 2011 (Marvel)
Intended-Audience criticism is widely applicable, even to presentations like this one. - The author (myself) has an intended audience of this English Composition class. - The reasoning for this subject is partially due to my experiences (love of analyzing context in narratives) and partially from common misconceptions I have seen. - This affects the content of the presentation by assuming that the audience is already aware of concepts that I am covering, and they have passing knowledge of me.
The author's upbringing and culture often affects their audience intent!
Example: The Art of War
Example: The Hunger Games
&
Works Cited
Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Thompkins. “Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism.” Purdue Owl, Purdue University, 8 July 2014, https://dochub.com/4tugakids/6mO8oy7KpvqYyPlwqg5p9J/purdue-owl-literary-theory-pdf?dt=x5js4KPwkFHj5a7n6YB_.Enriquez, Grace. “‘I Don’t Want to Finish This Book!’, Or A Posthumanist View of Affect, Reader Response, and Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 53, no. 3, Sept. 2022, pp. 313–26. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09501-z.Mambrol, Nasrullah. “New Historicism.” Literariness, 22 October 2020, https://literariness.org/2020/10/22/new-historicism/.Ugbogbo, Helen. “THE MORAL APPROACH TO LITERARY CRITICISM.” Innovative Journal of Social Science, Arts and Management, vol. 12, no. 2, 2024, pp. 99-106, https://bwjournal.org/index.php/bsjournal/article/download/2200/1877/1482.