Reception theory is a version of
reader response
Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and f ...
literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
that emphasizes each particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a
literary text
In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits some kind ...
. Reception theory is generally referred to as
audience reception
Also known as reception analysis, audience reception theory has come to be widely used as a way of characterizing the wave of audience research which occurred within communications and cultural studies during the 1980s and 1990s. On the whole, t ...
in the analysis of
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
models. In literary studies, reception theory originated from the work of
Hans-Robert Jauss
Hans Robert Jauss (german: Jauß; 12 December 1921 – 1 March 1997) was a German academic, notable for his work in reception theory (especially his concept of horizon of expectation) and medieval and modern French literature. His approach was de ...
in the late 1960s, and the most influential work was produced during the 1970s and early 1980s in Germany and the US (Fortier 132), with some notable work done in other Western European countries. A form of reception theory has also been applied to the study of
historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...
.
The cultural theorist
Stuart Hall was one of the main proponents of reception theory, first developed in his 1973 essay 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse'. His approach, called the
encoding/decoding model of communication The Encoding/Decoding model of communication was first developed by cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall in 1973. Stuart Hall pronounced the study as 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse.' Hall's essay offers a theoretical approach of ...
, is a form of textual analysis that focuses on the scope of "negotiation" and "opposition" by the
audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...
. This means that a "text"—be it a book, movie, or other creative work—is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the reader/viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on her or his individual cultural background and life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader.
Hall also developed a theory of encoding and decoding,
Hall's theory The Encoding/Decoding model of communication was first developed by cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall in 1973. Stuart Hall pronounced the study as 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse.' Hall's essay offers a theoretical approach of ...
, which focuses on the communication processes at play in texts that are in televisual form.
Reception theory has since been extended to the spectators of performative events, focusing predominantly on the theatre. Susan Bennett is often credited with beginning this discourse. Reception theory has also been applied to the history and analysis of landscapes, through the work of the landscape historian
John Dixon Hunt
John Dixon Hunt (born 18 January 1936 in Gloucester) is an English landscape historian, whose academic career began teaching English literature.. He became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and served as the department chair o ...
, as Hunt recognized that the survival of gardens and landscapes is largely related to their public reception.
General
A basic acceptance of the meaning of a specific text tends to occur when a group of readers have a shared cultural background and interpret the text in similar ways. It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist, the less he or she will be able to recognise the artist's intended meaning, and it follows that if two readers have vastly different cultural and personal experiences, their reading of a text will vary greatly.
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...
coined the term
aberrant decoding
Aberrant decoding or aberrant reading is a concept used in fields such as communication and media studies, semiotics, and journalism about how messages can be interpreted differently from what was intended by their sender. The concept was propose ...
to describe the case when the reader's interpretation differs from what the artist intended.
Landscape architecture
In literature, the interaction between text and reader occurs within a framework that controls and limits the interaction, through genre, tone, structure, and the social conditions of the reader and author, whereas in landscapes the interaction occurs through movement and viewing, framed by typology instead of genre and tone. Instead of an "implied reader", reception theory of landscapes assumes an "implied visitor", who is an abstracted concatenation of responses of many visitors at different times.
The theory recognizes that there is no single reading of a landscape that fulfills its entire potential, and that it is important to examine the motives of visitors and the factors influencing their visits (whether they read guidebooks about the place before visiting, or had strong feelings about the place or the designer, for instance).
One key difference between reception theory in literature and reception theory in landscape architecture is that while literary works are accessible only to the imagination, physical landscapes are accessible to the senses as well as to the imagination.
Reception theoretical analysis of architecture differs from typical writing on the history and analysis of landscapes, which tends to focus on the intentions of the designers, the conditions leading to the creation of the design, and the building process. Reception theory also tends to de-emphasize commonly used terms of description like 'formal' and 'picturesque', unless those terms were known to have meaning to landscape visitors themselves.
Reception history
According to
Harold Marcuse
Harold Marcuse (born November 15, 1957 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an American professor of modern and contemporary German history and public history. He teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara.Pat Dowell"German Filmmaker Tackles ...
, reception history is "the history of the meanings that have been imputed to historical events. It traces the different ways in which participants, observers, historians and other retrospective interpreters have attempted to make sense of events both as they unfolded and over time since then, to make those events meaningful for the present in which they lived and live."
[Harold Marcuse, ]University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
, Department of Histor
Reception History: Definition and Quotations.
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Reception history and the Bible
One area of scholarship where reception history is being explored more deeply is the reception history of the Bible. In the context of the Bible, reception history comprises the manifold interpretations of the biblical text from the time that it was written until now. It aims to show how biblical interpretations have developed throughout the centuries. The field that predated the reception history of the Bible has been known as the “history of interpretation” or “history of exegesis.” The greatest difference between reception history and its predecessor approach is that reception history does not restrict its interpretations. It includes interpretations that are marginal and even unorthodox. Reception history does not restrict interpretations by medium either; it includes the use of art, music, poetry, and liturgy. In contrast, the history of interpretation is concerned with how biblical scholars have interpreted a text in only their commentaries and monographs.
The reception of the Bible is founded on the interpretative framework of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Gadamer was concerned with displaying how all interpretive acts are contextualized. At the same time, however, Gadamer maintained the integrity of empirical knowledge. Gadamer saw the contextualized interpretation of scripture and the empirical knowledge about its development are best understood to be in a dialogical relationship with one another. In this sense, it is a diachronic approach to interpretation of the Bible. The individual contexts of interpreters in communication with the original text is the basis for reception history of the bible.
One of the key issues surrounding biblical reception history is locating when it began. This issue is sometimes addressed by demarcating a shift from the original text and its reception. However, the distinction of an original text becomes difficult because of the various forms of the earlier biblical texts that were being used. Because of the various sources, traditions, and editions of the earliest biblical texts it is difficult to know what was considered original and was interpreted. Related to this issue of numerous source materials in biblical reception is the context of these source materials. If one wishes to try and read the original text, one is required to do so in its historical context lest it become detached and lose their meaning. The various contexts that are associated with each of the contributing texts does not allow for there to be a single context in which to read the text correctly. This again muddles the difference between original text and reception history of the Bible.
See also
* Classical reception studies
Classical reception studies is the study of how the classical world, especially Ancient Greek literature and Latin literature, have been received since antiquity. It is the study of the portrayal and representation of the ancient world from ancient ...
* Horizon of expectation "Horizon of expectation" (german: Erwartungshorizont) is a term fundamental to German academic Hans Robert Jauss's reception theory. The concept is a component of his theory of literary history where his intention is to minimise the gulf between the ...
* Semiotic democracy Semiotic democracy is a phrase first coined by John Fiske, a media studies professor, in his seminal media studies book ''Television Culture'' (1987).John Fiske, ''Television Culture'' (Routledge, 1987). Fiske defined the term as the "delegation o ...
*Postcritique
In literary criticism and cultural studies, postcritique is the attempt to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. Such methods have been characterized as a ...
* Influence and reception of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche's influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropriate his work quite early.
Ov ...
* Influence and reception of Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher whose influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropri ...
* Reception history of Jane Austen
The reception history of Jane Austen follows a path from modest fame to wild popularity. Jane Austen (1775–1817), the author of such works as '' Pride and Prejudice'' (1813) and '' Emma'' (1815), has become one of the best-known and most wid ...
* Reception of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'' had an initial mixed literary reception. Despite some enthusiastic early reviews from supporters such as W. H. Auden, Iris Murdoch, and C. S. Lewis, literary hostility to To ...
* Shakespeare's reputation
In his own time, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was rated as merely one among many talented playwrights and poets, but since the late 17th century has been considered the supreme playwright and poet of the English language.
No other dramat ...
References
{{Reflist
Further reading
* Amacher, Richard, and Victor Lange, eds. ''New Perspectives in German Literary Criticism''. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1979.
* Bennett, Susan, eds. ''Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception''. New York: Routledge, 1990.
* Eagleton, Terry. “Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and Reception Theory,” in ''Literary Theory''. University of Minnesota Press, 1996. p. 47 – 78.
* Fortier, Mark. ''Theory / Theatre: An Introduction''. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2002.
* Hohendahl, Peter Uwe
Peter Uwe Hohendahl (born 1936) is a literary and intellectual historian and theorist. He served as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of German Studies at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research uni ...
. "Introduction to Reception Aesthetics." ''New German Critique'' 10 (1977): 29-63.
* Holub, Robert C. ''Crossing Borders: Reception Theory, Poststructuralism, Deconstruction''. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1992.
* Holub, Robert C. ''Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction''. London: Methuen, 1984.
* Hunt, John Dixon. ''The Afterlife of Gardens''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
* Iser, Wolfgang. ''The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978.
* Jauss, Hans Robert. ''Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics''. Trans. Michael Shaw. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1982.
* Jauss, Hans Robert. ''Toward an Aesthetic of Reception''. Trans. Timothy Bahti. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1982.
External links
''Participations – The International Journal of Audience and Reception Studies''
by Harold Marcuse, University of California, Santa Barbara
Literary theory
Theatre studies
Historiography
Communication theory