[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.There is in fact no reason why the author should not have hadseveral mutually contradictory intentions, or why his intention may nothave been somehow self-contradictory, but Hirsch does not consider thesepossibilities.The most recent development of hermeneutics in Germany is known as'reception aesthetics' or 'reception theory', and unlike Gadamer it does notconcentrate exclusively on works of the past.Reception theory examines thereader's role in literature, and as such is a fairly novel development.Indeedone might very roughly periodize the history of modern literary theory inthree stages: a preoccupation with the author (Romanticism and the nine-teenth century); an exclusive concern with the text (New Criticism); and amarked shift of attention to the reader over recent years.The reader hasalways been the most underprivileged of this strangely, since withouthim or her there would be no literary texts at all.Literary texts do not existon bookshelves: they are processes of signification materialized only in the Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory 65practice of reading.For literature to happen, the reader is quite as vital as theauthor.What is involved in the act of reading? Let me take, almost literally atrandom, the first two sentences of a novel: '''What did you make of thecouple?" The Hanemas, Piet and Angela, were undressing.' (John Updike,Couples.) What are we to make of this? We are puzzled for a moment,perhaps, by an apparent lack ofconnection between the two sentences, untilwe grasp that what is at work here is the literary convention by which wemay attribute a piece of direct speech to a character even if the text does notexplicitly do this itself.We gather that some character, probably Piet orAngela Hanema, makes the opening statement; but why do we presume this?The sentence in quotation marks may not be spoken at all: it may be athought, or a question which someone else has asked, or a kind of epigraphplaced at the opening ofthe novel.Perhaps it is addressed to Piet and Angela.Hanema by somebody else, or by a sudden voice from the sky.One reasonwhy the latter solution seems unlikely is that the question is a little colloquialfor a voice from the sky, and we might know that Updike is in general arealist writer who does not usually go in for such devices; but a writer's textsdo not necessarily form a consistent whole and it may be unwise to lean onthis assumption too heavily.It is unlikely on realist grounds that the ques-tion is asked by a chorus of people speaking in unison, and slightly unlikelythat it is asked by somebody other than Piet or Angela Hanema, since welearn the next moment that they are undressing, perhaps speculate that theyare a'married couple, and know that married couples, in our suburb ofBirmingham at least, do not make a practice of undressing together beforethird parties, whatever they might do individually.'We have probably already made a whole set of inferences as we read thesesentences.We may infer, for example, that the 'couple' referred to is a manand woman, though there is nothing so far to tell us that they are not twowomen or two tiger cubs.We assume that whoever poses the questioncannot mind-read, as then there would be no need to ask.We may suspectthat the questioner values the judgement of the addressee, though there isnot sufficient context as yet for us to judge that the question is not tauntingor aggressive.The phrase 'The Hanemas', we imagine, is probably in gram-matical apposition to the phrase 'Piet and Angela', to indicate that this istheir surname, which provides a significant piece of evidence for their beingmarried.But we cannot rule out the possibility that there is some group ofpeople called the Hanemas in addition to Piet and Angela, perhaps a wholetribe of them, and that they are all undressing together in some immensehall.The fact that Piet and Angela may share the same surname does not 66 Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theoryconfirm that they are husband and wife: they may be a particularly liberatedor incestuous brother and sister, father and daughter or mother and son.Wehave assumed, however, that they are undressing in sight of each other,whereas nothing has yet told us that the question is not shouted from onebedroom or beach-hut to another.Perhaps Piet and Angela are small chil-dren, though the relative sophistication of the question makes this unlikely.Most readers will by now probably have assumed that Piet and AngelaHanema are a married couple undressing together in their bedroom aftersome event, perhaps a party, at which a new married couple was present, butnone of this is actually said.The fact that these are the first two sentences of the novel means, ofcourse, that many of these questions will be answered for us as we read on
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
