A Study Of Chinese Readers‘ Reception Of The Kite Runner From The Perspective Of Horizons Of Expectations

Hans Robert Jauss‘ aesthetics of reception theory developed on theoretical basis of Gadamer‘s hermeneutics.Formed in late 1960 s,its core concept was that readers were not passive recipients,but dynamic participants and creators in the process of constructing meanings of a text and readers determine the ultimate meaning and value of a literary text.Literary works without readers' participation are independent existences outside readers‘ cognitive world and are of no aesthetic values at all.It shifted researches‘ focuses from authors or texts in the past to readers‘ reception back then and for the very first time let readers enter into the meaning construction process of a literary text.Based on the concept of ?situation? from Gadamer‘s hermeneutics,Jauss put forward the idea of ?horizons?,and repeatedly discussed the term in his theory.He believed a literary work must meet certain objective criteria in order to be accepted,and these criteria were ?horizons?.Readers‘ horizons of expectations constitute the synchronic reading system,thus are of great research significance.It is the core concept in Jauss‘ aesthetics of reception theory and is also the theoretical basis used in this thesis.Jauss believed that readers‘ horizons of expectations were readers‘ previous thinking orientations and cognitive structure,which were made up by their previous reading experience.Generally speaking,readers horizons of expectation are readers‘ presupposition and expectations of a new literary text.Readers choose their favorite images to create values of literary works according to their horizons of expectations,and thus participate the meaning production process of literary works.Therefore,reader groups from different times and backgrounds could have different horizon fulfillment and conflict experience with a same literary work and one literary work could resonate with different reader groups for different reasons.The Kite Runner is the first novel written by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini and is also for the very first time an English novel written by an Afghan-American.Published in 2003,it aroused fierce feed back from readers: it was the number one New York Times bestseller for over two years;it has been translated into 42 different languages;over twenty million copies are sold around the world.The novel is also welcomed by Chinese readers.China Daily published an article in 2014 with a title ?how does The Kite Runner become a bestseller in China??.The article stated The Kite Runner is widely accepted by Chinese readers since it‘s first publication in China in 2006 by Shanghai People‘s Publishing House.It also stated that The Kite Runner has long been one of the top 30 best-selling books in China and has been sold out more than 300 million copies.Its author Khaled Hosseini hence won the position as the most profitable foreign writer in China.Jauss believed that a popular and well-received literary work must have fulfilled readers‘ horizons of expectations and at the same time conflicted with them to some extent in order to improve readers‘ aesthetics capacity.Therefore,it is rather appropriate to analyze this novel from perspectives of horizons of expectations theory.This thesis consists of 3 parts: introduction,main body and conclusion,namely,introduction,main body and conclusion.Literature reviews of The Kite Runner and significances of this thesis are included in the introduction part.Three chapters constitute the main body.Chapter One is theoretical basis.It was of great important significance that Jauss applied reception theories in literary work analyzing process,however,it is not Jauss who firstly put forward reception theories and the very core concept in Jauss‘ reception theory was influenced by Gadamer and other philosophers from Germany.Therefore,this chapter will study the origin of Jauss‘ theory and main content in his horizons of expectations theory.Chapter Two analyses what horizons in the novel could possibly fulfills Chinese readers‘ horizons of expectations.Fulfillment of readers horizons of expectations could help with literary works‘ reception process and it is called a ?light reading? process.The Kite Runner could only resonate with Chinese reader if there are light reading processes.Therefore,this chapter will focus on what content in the novel could possibly be the source of this process,including Afghanistan‘s constantly happened wars,ethnical discriminations and people‘s inheritance of cultural customs.Chapter Three analyses what horizons in the novel could possible conflict with Chinese readers horizons of expectations.Based on Jauss‘ reception theory,a new literary work must fulfill and conflicts with readers‘ horizons of expectations at the same time and leave some ?uncertainty? in order to achieve its popularity.Therefore,this chapter will focus on what content in the novel could possibly be the source of this process,including readers‘ different attitudes towards Amir‘s redemption results,empathy for Hassan‘s miserable life,and three different father-son relationships.Conclusion part generalizes and summarizes the whole thesis and put forward some advice for writers about how to use aesthetics of reception theory in their writing process in order to raise popularities of their literary works.Writers should be fully aware of readers‘ horizons of expectations: on the one hand,fulfilling readers‘ horizons of expectations is a prerequisite and on the other hand,conflicting with them could help with improvements of readers‘ aesthetics capacity.Knowing how to balance these two processes is a must for writers if they want to achieve their works‘ popularity.