Reception theory
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader’s reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the analysis of communications models. In literary studies, reception theory originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss 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.
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, is a form of textual analysis that focuses on the scope of “negotiation” and “opposition” by the audience. 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, 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, as Hunt recognized that the survival of gardens and landscapes is largely related to their public reception.
School of Constance in West Germany, which shifted focus from text production to the reader’s experience and the historical reception of literary works. Co-founded by Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser at the University of Constance, this theory, also known as “the Aesthetics of Reception” (Rezeptionsästhetik), argues that a text’s meaning and significance are not static but are constructed and evolve through the process of reading and interpretation.
Key Concepts:
Reader-Response Criticism:
The School of Constance is closely related to American reader-response criticism, emphasizing the reader’s active role in creating meaning from a text.
Aesthetics of Reception (Rezeptionsästhetik):
This term highlights the historical and aesthetic dimension of reception, examining how a work’s meaning changes over time through different readers and critical perspectives.
Horizon of Expectations:
Jauss’s concept of a “horizon of expectations” refers to the set of literary, cultural, and social assumptions that readers bring to a text, which shapes their understanding and response.
Gaps and Blanks:
Iser focused on the “blanks” or “implied gaps” in a text that the reader fills in during the reading process to create a unified experience and complete the text’s meaning.
Significance:
The School of Constance provided a new framework for understanding literature by challenging traditional formalist approaches that focused solely on the author or the text itself.
It revealed how a literary work’s meaning is a dynamic process, a “dialogue” between the reader and the text, rather than a fixed, objective quality.
The theory had a significant impact on German literary theory for about a decade and later became more widely accessible in the English-speaking world through translations.