On Iser’s Idea Of "Human Plasticity" Under Perspectives Of His Literary Anthropology

As a famous theorist of reception aesthetics in the20th century, Wolfgang Iser turned tothe literary anthropology, in the late of1980’s. The research of Iser’s reception aesthetics hasbeen very deep, but the literary anthropology was insufficient, let alone his idea of "humanplasticity".The thought of "human plasticity" is based on recognized anthropological discourseabout human. The Social Anthropology considers human to be "role-player", thePhilosophical Anthropology believes human was a "creature of deficiency", the GenerateAnthropology think people live in the world which is full of characterizations of “the originalscene”. Human are defective so that we continuously to overstep ourselves, improveourselves, we are always in a state of change. The essence of man is "human plasticity", it hasself-generative, self-variability and self-negativity."Human plasticity" becomes the power ofthe literary writing, the root of the readers obsessed with reading and the motivation andpurpose of the Literature. Therefore, the thought of "human plasticity" became the core ideaof Iser’s literary anthropology.Specifically, on the one hand,"human plasticity" is the power of literary activities, whichcontributes to the literature of self-fashioning."Human plasticity" opens the " Imitate" of theliterary activities, accomplishes the " Revel", inspires the "reflection", and that contributes tothe literature of self-presentation, self-extension, and self-enlightenment. Finally it completesself-fashioning. in the literary activities.On the other hand,"human plasticity" is the purpose of literary activities, through theinteraction of the fictive and the imaginary, Literature performs the unlimited "humanplasticity". Iser redefined the fictive and imaginary. Fiction is not confrontation with thereality, but is connected to the reality, and fiction is a kind of intentional oversteppingbehavior. Imagination is not a kind of ability of self-sufficiency, but an invisible power, whichneeds to be activate by the main intention, it is a kind of cognitive discourse. Fiction providesthe form for imagination that fill the emptiness of fiction, literature becomes a dynamicperformance under the interaction of fiction and imagination constitutes, which is in a theworld of "as if”" and in the form of "text" game, owning gameplay and authenticity. So thatit brings "human plasticity" to a boundless space, and shows the diversity and possibility ofhuman.Different from traditional literary theory, Iser’s literary anthropology not only focus on the model construction, but pay attention to the significance of literature and its function,as asymbol. The thought "human plasticity" has redefined the literature, confirmed the necessityof literary in the modern multimedia age, points out a new direction for our research ofliterary theory.