Aesthetic Distance In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Aesthetic distance is also called"psychical distance", which is one of the most influential theories in aesthetics. Edward Bullough takes it as the psychological distance existing between the subject and the object when appreciating a work of art. Modern literary critic W·C·Booth introduces the theory of aesthetic distance into the analysis of novels. He also puts forward and explains the concepts of unreliable narrator and the implied author. In a novel, the writer can apply different rhetorical devices to control the reader's feelings of involvement in a work, which results in various aesthetic distances in time, space, psychology and emotion between the work and the reader. Then the reader can enjoy a sense of aesthetics when reading the work.In many literary works, there usually exist various kinds of distances between the author, the narrator, the reader and the character in values, morality and intelligence. It shouldn't be "over-distanced" nor "under-distanced". If it is over-distanced, readers will not respond to it because it will seem artificial; if it is under-distanced, the work will become too personal for readers to enjoy as art. So the distance should be properly controlled in a literary work. Only when the distance is well controlled can readers immerse in the fictional world and at the same time discriminate the work from reality, examine and comment the characters and the circumstances objectively in a more widely view. Then a sense of aesthetics can be acquired by reading the work.This thesis is going to analyze the aesthetic distance in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is always regarded as Mark Twain's masterpiece. It embodies great artistic appeal and is one typical example in the masterly control of aesthetic distance. The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One demonstrates various distances presented in this novel. There exists distance between the unreliable narrator Huck and the implied author as well as the reader, and the distance between Huck, the narrator and Huck, the character; Chapter Two studies the rhetorical devices employed by Mark Twain to control the distance, including the use of inside views, ironic narrative and the application of vernacular language; Chapter Three is an analysis of the different literary effects of aesthetic distance in this novel. The variable distances result in the reader's fiction-based responses, art-effect responses and the fusion of horizons between the reader and the implied author or the work. Readers can be completely involved in the novel to laugh and cry with characters and meanwhile they can view the novel as a work of art with more objective attitude, which enables them to have a deeper understanding of the work and at last reach a full communication with the implied author.