reader-response theory 读者反映论

Stanley Fish
The theory of affective stylistics: arguing that the meaning of a text resides not in the formal configurations but in the experience of reader. For Fish, this reader is someone who projects, expects y as he moves from one word to the next in his linear processing of a text.

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J. Culler
The ideal reader Someone who has possessed , or rather internalized ,the literary conventions , the mastery of which would enable him to perform literary readings acceptable to other readers, for such conventions constitute the very institution of literature itself.
It examines the reader‟s role in literature ,claiming that there would be no literary work at all without participation of readers. The reader has a special identity. He is endowed with certain characteristics and performs special functions.

David Bleich
He argues that modern philosophers of science have correctly denied the existence of an objective world of facts. He regards reading as a process which depends upon the subjective psychology of the reader.
Reader-Response Theory
By Zhang Xi
Main Contents

The Origin of the Theory
Various models of the readers

The Origin of the Theory

hermeneutics
Phenomenology


Horizon of expectation, a term used in the reception theory of Hans Robert Jauss to designate the set of cultural norms, assumptions, and criteria shaping the way in which readers understand and judge a literary work at a given time. It may be formed by such factors as the prevailing conventions and definitions of art , or current moral codes. Such „horizons‟ are subject to historical change, so that a later generation of readers may see a very different range of meanings in the same work, and revalue it accordingly.

N. Holland
Transactive reader One who “works explicitly from his transaction of the text. “ identity theme AnOverviewofReader_ResponseTheory.pdf For him, literary interpretation is a function of identity. This transactive reader recreates his identity in reading through a process called DEFT (defense-expectationfantasy-transformation).

W .C . Booth
Created reader Created by the author is that his values and beliefs must coincide with those of the author‟s . For the actual reader, this implies that he should agree to play the role of this created reader in order to enjoy the literary work he is reading to the full.


the act of reading.doc
Gap or Blank 存在于文本中已经写出的部分向读者暗示或提示的 语言和情节结构中。


AnOverviewofReader_ResponseTheory.pdf
Hans Robert Jauss
For him, textual interpretation is largely a question of reconstructing the reader‟s “horizon of expectation”. historical reader It is based upon the central notion of the “horizon of expectations,” “the set of cultural ,ethical, and literary expectations of a work‟s readers in the historical moment of its appearance.

Various
models of the readers
W. Gibson
Mock reader or the fictitious addressee It is one who listens to and agrees with the fictitious author, or it is the sole played by the actual reader if he really wants to enjoy the story he is reading.

Phenomenology


It was first put forward by German philosopher Edmund Husserl in 1930s. Phenomenology, a philosophical movement based on the investigation of „phenomena‟ (i.e. things as apprehended by consciousness) rather than on the existence of anything outside of human consciousness.

The informed reader Characterized by three notable competences: 1. Competence in the language of the text 2. Semantic competence 3. Literary competence

Wolfgang Iser
Implied reader The reader whom the text creates for itself and amounts to “a network of response—inviting structures ” which predispose us to read in certain ways.

Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics—hermes (_赫尔墨斯); Traditional hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of written texts; Modern hermeneutics encompass everything in the interpretative process including verbal and non-verbal forms of communication.