The Review Of Jauss' Aesthetics Of Reception

Jauss' aesthetics of reception shocked the literary world and exerted a great influence on the studies of theory of literary and art and also made him one of the most important theorists of theory of literary and art in the twentieth century. Jauss' theory was greatly influenced by contemporary philosophical Hermeneutics, Russian Formalism, Ingarden's theory of Materialization and Recomstruction, Marxist aesthetics.Jauss' studies of aesthetics of reception can be divided into two periods. His early goal is to construct a new history of literature while his later goal is aimed at Aesthetic experience.Jauss thinks conception of history of literature of positivism neglects the third factor—the reader, in the process of literature, denies literary unique historicity while Marxist theory literature is merely a mechanical economical determinism and vulgar theory of reflection. Formalism separates literary works from all historic conditions so that it cuts off the relationship between literature and living practice, and slips into the mire of art's sake. Jauss also thinks that history of literature is a process of aesthetic reception literary text on the part of the receptive reader, the reflective critic and the author in his continuing productivity.Horizon of exception is the backbone of Jauss' theory of reception, which means that the reader must preconceive a knowledge frame and comprehending structure before reading a new work. In a concrete reading process, it expresses a latent criterion of aesthetics. This expectation combines with the school and the style of the work to form a unique rule which is kept in the reader' mind and then becomes a pre—experience while reading other works. Horizon of expectation is consistent. The first reader's understanding of the work will be enriched in the chain of reception from generation to generation. The historic significance and aesthetic value can be realized in this way.The discordance between the established horizon of exception and the new work is called aesthetic distance. It is because of this distance that the reader needs to adjust...