An Interpretation Of W.H. Auden’s Poetry From The Perspective Of Reception-Aestheties

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) is one of the most prestigious modernist poets of the20th century, whose poetry mainly focuses on the contemporary anxiety about public and private problems. This thesis attempts to interpret the anxiety readers perceive during the process of reading from Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauss’s theory of Reception-Aesthetics. It begins with a brief account of Auden, literature review of Auden’s works as well as the theory of Reception-Aesthetics, and closes with a summary of the thesis. In between is the main body which consists of three chapters. It develops from the perspectives of blank within Auden’s poems, readers’horizon of expectations and readers’ influence on Auden’s creation.Chapter One makes use of the "blank" presented by Iser to explore the possibility of readers’ perception of Auden’s anxiety within the text. Firstly, semantic blank in Auden’s poetry are demonstrated by the figurative technique such as metaphor and metonymy. Secondly, images are used to reveal the emotional blank. The anxiety about the morbid society and the distrustful human love is easily perceived in deserted landscape and dreams. Thirdly, the blank of details gives readers more space to read between lines, and perceive identity anxiety.Chapter Two takes advantage of "readers’ horizon of expectations" put forward by Jauss and probes into readers’ dynamic activity of perceiving anxiety. Readers’"horizon of expectations", i.e., the inner cognitive structure and life experience enable readers to perceive Auden’s contemporary anxiety about national decay. What’s more, the link between readers’"horizon of expectations" and Auden’s is strong. When they are fused, readers can clearly sense Auden’s anxiety about social decline and hopeless love.Chapter Three focuses on readers’ influence on how Auden expresses the anxiety. Firstly, it analyzes the influence of readers’ demands. Readers struck by undesirable circumstance hunger for the truth, which is exactly the reason why Auden utilizes direct approach to inform readers of the anxiety about national decline and people’s hopelessness. Readers’reading strain motivates Auden to take advantage of dramatic dialogue and repetition, which make it easy for readers to notice the significance of the poems and perceive the anxieties about imminent war and homelessness. Secondly, it explains the influence of readers’response. Since readers cannot perceive the anxiety in Auden’s poetry because of the obscure language, Auden has to transform his poetic style from obscure into lucid. On account of readers’misunderstanding of Auden’s position, Auden alters some of his earlier poems, making the content more prudent and credible.This thesis intends to dig into the anxiety in Auden’s poetry from the activities readers take. It overturns the traditional view that readers are in subordinate position, and highlights readers, the more creative one of the critic factors, can better manifest social function. Besides, different readers’interactions with Auden and texts, to a large extent, determine their interpretations about Auden’s anxiety. Auden’s poetry is not only his own knowledge but a medium leading readers to experience existential crisis, and arousing social concern.