Final answer:
Reader-Response Criticism is the approach that explains diverse readers' responses by emphasizing the central role of readers in creating the meaning of literary works.
Step-by-step explanation:
The approach to literature that explores and seeks to explain the diversity of readers' responses to literary works by understanding the central role of readers in interpreting a text is known as Reader-Response Criticism. This school of literary criticism posits that meaning is not a fixed property anchored within the text itself but rather is constructed by the reader through personal engagement with the text. The meaning of a literary work, therefore, varies from one reader to another, with each reader bringing their personal experiences, emotions, and interpretations to the process of reading.
Reader-Response Criticism stands in contrast to other theoretical frameworks like Deconstruction, which also questions the notion of fixed meanings but emphasizes the inherent contradictions and instabilities of language itself. Structuralism looks at overarching systems in texts, while Formalism, sometimes called New Criticism, focuses on the form and literary devices within the text, eschewing external contexts.
Reader-Response Criticism encourages readers to question the seeming objectivity of text interpretation and acknowledges the subjective nature of reading, which resonates with the understanding that literature can have multiple potential meanings and that the process of uncovering these meanings is a creative and dynamic dialogue between reader and text.