读者与文本的交流障碍——读者反应批评视角下的《波士顿人》

The Bostonians in the View of Reader-Response Criticism

本文借用读者反应批评中的"期待视域"和"隐含读者"这两个概念来分析亨利·詹姆斯的长篇小说《波士顿人》在刊印之初所受到的英美报刊的负面评论,试图找到这本小说在当时不受读者欢迎的原因。本文提出,作为严肃作家的詹姆斯视文学创作为高雅的艺术实践,他的这部小说是以自成一体的艺术品呈现在读者面前的,在其创作过程中,作者本人几乎未考虑过真实读者的需求;然而由于受到当时社会、历史及整体文化氛围影响,真实读者的期待视域与该作品隐含读者的指导性阅读相冲突,这就造成了读者与文本在互动与交流中的理解障碍。

In order to find out the reasons that lead to the unpopularity of The Bostonians by Henry James among its contemporary readers,this essay attempts to analyze British and American negative reviews in newspapers and magazines in the year of its first publication,mainly from the perspective of 'horizon of expectation'and 'implied reader',two concepts proposed by reader-response critics.This essay argues that,having always been a serious writer,James considers fiction-writing as artistic creation.Thus The Bostonians is created to be a piece of art with its own style.In the process of writing,James has hardly taken account of readers' needs.However,under the influence of societal,historical and cultural factors,the inconformity between readers' horizon of expectations and the optimal interpretation intended by the implied reader occurs.