On The Subjectivity Of Readers In Understanding Literary Text

This paper deliberates the subjectivity of readers in understanding the literary text. The literary theories in the 19th and early 20th century focus on the role of authors, the text but ignore that of readers in the literary process. Author-dominated and text-oriented theories don't take into account subjectivity and creativity of readers. Traditional hermeneutics claims that understanding is characterized by objectivity and authors are the origin of textual meaning. Although the text-oriented theories contribute a lot to outlawing the central role of authors, they proclaim that text is the linguistic product that is self-sufficient, closed and independent. In their view, polysemy of text is subject to textual structure. Arguing against the authorial intent, modern hermeneutics holds that historicity of understanding constitutes the "prejudice" or "fore- structure". Readers create the text according to their experiences or fore-structure. Nietzsche's declaration of the death of God and Iser's appeal structure of text paves the way for a new theory of understanding literary text. When authors complete their works, they may be seen as dead and have no authority over the meaning of the works; As a result, readers are now free from the authorial intent. Iser's concept of appeal structure also to some extent gives birth to readers' subjectivity and creativity of understanding. They now have the freedom to direct authors' creation, actualize the literary value and construct themeaning.To repeat, this paper aims to emphasize the subjectivity of understanding literary text on readers' part. It does not man to blur the objectivity inherent in the text, which will no doubt exercise some constraints on subjectivity or creativity of readers' understanding.