Reception Theory As Applied To Jian-An Literature

This dissertation attempts an examination of the formation, spread and influence of Jian-an literature from the perspective of reception theory. It aims to reveal the cultural value and textual construction of Jian-an literature, then to analyze the interactive relationship between the horizon of expectations reflected in the writers' works and the preexistent horizon of expectations of their reader groups in different ages. Finally, the dissertation will outline theoretically and trace historically the aesthetic vision of the Chinese nation, to show the structural pattern inherent in the development of its cultural psychology.This dissertation consists of two main parts. Part I adopts the approach of reader reception, reader response and reader criticism. Aided by quantitative analysis, this gives systematic documentation and detailed analysis of ancient historical records, philosophical works, comprehensive collections of specific types of writings, anthologies of individual authors, and a large number of notes on poets and poetry, literary sketches, selected works, books with notes, and material in various book series and other miscellanies of the past dynasties. Using this basis, the dissertation then probes into the interactive relationship among writer, literary work and reader in relation to the varied horizons of expectations. It explores how Jian-an literature spread, and was received, in different historical periods; this includes both its vertical reception and horizontal reception, and the variations in reader's horizon of expectations.The focus of Part II is on textual effect studies, that is, case or paradigm studies on the horizontal level of reception. It discusses such problems as how the texts of Jian-an literature function in their interactive relationship with (a) contemporary world(s). This aims to reveal the effect of these literary works on their readers, and to analyze the role of readers in the restriction and/or spread and/or perpetuation of these texts. Such interactive relationships are again scrutinized against the developing historical background, so that its law may be discovered and its pattern of evolution sketched. With reference to the critical approach of this dissertation, it applies Chinese traditional literary theory as well as some compatible elements from Western literary criticism, laying stress on the organic compilation of documentary research with theoretical analysis.