DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2016.v04i01.013

Pages: 72-79

In this case study research, the authors conceptualized hermeneutics, semiotics, and reader- response theories into the inquiry of poetry by inviting their college students including the foreign exchange students to read and interpret Shel Silverstein’s classic story-poem, “The Giving Tree”. Hermeneutics is the interpretation of poetry by the Greek philosophers; semiotics is the exploration of meanings by signs like languages, arts, music, dance, drama, and films; and reader-response, through which students from diverse sociocultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds read-aloud and think-aloud the poem, transact their life experiences with the world in the poem, and construct signs to interpret the poem. Coincidentally, “humanity” became an outstanding theme in most readers’ responses to this poem. The authors analyze the students’ responses from The Five Theoretical Perspectives on Response by Richard Beach: textual, experiential, social, cultural and psychological. This study shifted to the focus on breaking through the myth about gender role stereotypes, activating readers’ social consciousness for humanities toward a world of understanding and equity.