Horizon Of Expectations Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde, the leader of the British Aesthetic Movement, is a universally recognized genius in the history of British literature nowadays. However, when The Picture of Dorian Gray was published, Oscar Wilde’s fate changed dramatically. What awaited him was not the growing reputation but a two-year-prison custody and an infamous remaining life. However, a century later, the late-nineteenth-century prohibited book is a magnet for numerous readers and the focus of literary critics.This thesis analyzes readers’response towards this novel in three major different periods by the theory of horizon of expectations. It is divided into three parts. Chapter One deals with late Victorian readers’negative response to this story. On the one hand, most Victorian readers do not accept it because Oscar Wilde does not obey the traditional novel standards. On the other hand, it does not have a large Victorian readership because of those pioneering artistic ideas embedded in this book, such as new hedonism, male-male desire message. Chapter Two is concerned with the horizon of expectations of modernist readers from two major respects. One is people’s changing attitude towards decadence, and the other is the overlap between The Picture of Dorian Gray and modernist texts. Chapter Three interprets the horizon of expectations of postmodern readers. This story, together with its author Oscar Wilde, becomes popular among readers. Due to the influences of consumerism and rebellious groups, decadence and new hedonism are neither simply backward-looking or corrupt, as most of the nineteenth century critics viewed. To the postmodern readers, leading a comfortable life is reasonable. With an end of the Second World War, people have made much progress in fighting for their freedom and human rights. Meanwhile, with the appearance of queer theory and psychoanalysis, same-sex love information and evil theme are theoretically demonstrated, which has gained more supporting voice.From the perspective of readers’different responses in three different historical moments, a conclusion can be arrived that a good story like The Picture of Dorian Gray, is capable of withstanding the test of time.