On The Reader's Aesthetic Creation In The Golden Notebook From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Doris Lessing is the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and the oldest winner of the literary prize.She is considered as one of the greatest British writers.Owing to the unique form and international perspective,her works occupy a special position in western literature.The Golden Notebook,published in 1962,is the best demonstration.Since its publication,the novel has attracted great interest from scholars,critics and readers,which has been controversial until now.At the same time,Lessing also becomes an international writer.Scholars and critics at home and abroad have conducted multidimensional explorations and analyses of The Golden Notebook.It is no exaggeration to say that the discussion on this novel has never stopped.However,related researches mainly focus on its form,gender relations,novel space,ethnic issues and psychology.There is no doubt that Lessing presents the reader with a disintegrating spiritual world and a real world in a unique structure.While providing the reader with new reading experience,it also brings certain challenges.From the perspective of reception theory,the reader can actively participate in the aesthetic creation of works in the process of text acceptance.In other words,the reader's reception process is part of the aesthetic value of the text.This thesis is to analyze the readers aesthetic creation in The Golden Notebook from the perspective of reception theory.It consists of six parts,including an introduction,four chapters and a conclusion.The introduction is a presentation of Lessing's literary achievements and research perspectives and comments of her novel The Golden Notebook at home and abroad,and then it explains the research significance of this thesis.Its value lies in the exploration of the reader's aesthetic creation in the novel based on “horizon of expectations”,“aesthetic distance” and “textual blanks” involved in the reception theory,which reveals the indispensability of the reader for the literary value of works.Chapter One is the theoretical basis of this thesis.It elaborates on the theory of “horizon of expectations”,“aesthetic distance” and “textual blanks” in the reception theory.Reception theory stems from hermeneutics and phenomenology.It is supported by the theories of Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser.Its characteristic is to analyze the literary value and aesthetic value of the works from the reader's perspective.“Horizon of expectations”,“aesthetic distance”,and “textual blanks” are important factors for the reader to participate in and realize the aesthetic creation of works.In the early stage of text reading,the reader tend to make an assumption or prediction on the style and plot of a text by relying on subjective feelings such as personal reading experience.In this way,the “horizon of expectations” of the reader is formed;“aesthetic distance” is an important indicator to measure the literary value of the work,which greatly affects the reader's reading expectation;“textual blanks” refers to the potential or implied blanks in a text and can only be realized in the reader's reception process.It enables the reader to be involved in the aesthetic creation to the greatest degree.Chapter Two is an exploration of the germination of the reader's aesthetic creation in the “horizon of expectations”.In the first section of this chapter,it explores the reader's psychological expectation for the tone of the novel in consideration of the background of Lessing's creation.Starting from the form and theme of the novel,it analyzes the reader's psychological expectations for the theme of the novel.Chapter Three probes into the formation of the reader's aesthetic creation based on the “aesthetic distance”.It focuses on the interaction between the text and its readers after the reader enter the text.On the one hand,Lessing uses a plain narrative in the main part of the novel,but presents it in a fragmented way in the four interspersed notebooks.It forms a great contrast and creates an extreme tense under the overall structure of the novel;On the other hand,the suspicion and confusion presented by free women are different from the reader's understanding of the word “free”,thus constituting the aesthetic distance between the reader and the text.The aesthetic distance encourages the reader to actively participate in aesthetic creation,and endows the literary works with great aesthetic value.Chapter Four explores the development of the reader's aesthetic creation from the perspective of “textual blanks”.“Textual blanks” provides a great degree of freedom for the reader to be involved in aesthetic creation.The textual blanks of the novel are mainly analyzed from two aspects: formal blanks and plot discontinuance.Language,newspaper cuttings and the inserted novel form a blank space in form.At the same time,the disordered time and place,the intertwined reality and dreams,and the shift of the protagonist between different identities shape a large gap in the novel's plot.The blanks in both form and plot encourage the reader to participate more in the aesthetic creation of the work and enhance the literary value of the work.Based on the above analysis and discussion,the conclusion points out that the literary value of the novel should be created by both the author and the reader.As the reception subject,the reader actively participate in the aesthetic creation of the work.The reader's aesthetic creation is dynamic and can change constantly during their reception process.It can be seen that the realization of the aesthetic value of works requires not only the author but also the participation,acceptance and creation of the reader.The reader's aesthetic creation gives more vitality to the novel.