Reception is a term that, since its introduction in literary studies in the 1960s, shifted the focus from the text and the author to the reader. The bottom line is that a text has no meaning without the contribution of the reader. In the conceptualisation of reception we can distinguish two main traditions: a European and an American one. One of the most influential scholars in the first was the German Hans-Robert Jauss who worked within the framework of the ‘Rezeptionsaesthetik’ (aesthetic of reception) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jauss introduced the term ‘Erwartungshorizont’ (horizon of expectations) to designate the set of cultural norms, assumptions and criteria that shape the way in which readers understand and judge a literary work at a given time. The process by which the reader concretises the potential of the text into a specific meaning or sense is what Jauss calls reception. Jauss’ main goal was to find new ways to write literary history. He claimed that the evolution of the audience, not the historical period of the author, explains the history of a literary text. A second important scholar of this ‘Konstanzer Schule’ (Constance School) is Wolfgang Iser. He introduced the concept ‘Leerstelle’ (Textual Gaps). For Iser, texts provide only a schematic structure, leaving many things unexplained to the reader. Through the reading process, the reader fills in the gaps and realizes the meaning of the text in a subjective and imaginative way.

References

Andringa, Els

2006 “Penetrating the Dutch polysystem: The reception of Virginia Woolf, -1920–2000.” Poetics Today 27 (3): 501–568.

Caffrey, Colm

2009 Relevant Abuse? Effects of Abusive Subtitling Strategies on Viewer Assessment of TV Anime. Dublin: Dublin City University [Ph.D. Thesis].

Chen, Yamei

2011 “The translator’s subjectivity and its constraints in news transediting: A perspective of reception aesthetics.” Meta 56 (1): 119–144.  TSB

Even-Zohar, Itamar

1978/1990 “The position of translated literature within the literary polysystem.” In The Translation Studies Reader, Lawrence Venuti (ed.). 3rd edition. 192–197. London/New York: Routledge.  TSB

Gottlieb, Henrik

1995 “Establishing a framework for a typology of subtitle reading strategies: DK viewer reactions to deviations from subtitling standards.” Translatio 14 (3–4): 388–409.

Heilbron, Johan

1999 “Towards a sociology of translation. Book translations as a cultural world-system.” European Journal of Social Theory 2 (4): 429–444.  TSB

Kenesi, Andrea

2010 Poetry Translation through Reception and Cognition: The Proof of Translation is in the Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Kovačič, Irena

1995 “Reception of subtitles. The non-existent ideal viewer.” Translatio 14 (3–4): 376–383.

Kruger, Haidee

2013 “Child and adult readers’ processing of foreignised elements in translated South African picturebooks.” Target 25 (2): 180–227.  BoP

Puurtinen, Tiina

1995 Linguistic Acceptability in Translated Children’s Literature [Publication in Humanities 15]. Joensuu: University of Joensuu.

Van den Broeck, Raymond

1988 Literatuur van elders: over het vertalen en de studie van vertaalde literatuur in het Nederlands. Leuven: Acco.  TSB

Further essential reading

Baker, Mona

2006 Translation and Conflict. A Narrative Account. London: Routledge.  BoP

Fish, Stanley

1980 Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities. -Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  BoP

Jauss, Hans Robert

1982 Toward an Aesthetic of Reception. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Iser, Wolfgang

1978 The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. London: Routledge.

Machor, James L. & Goldstein, Philip

2001 Reception Study. From Literary Theory to Cultural -Studies. London/New York: Routledge.