On Indeterminacy In Possession From The Perspective Of Aesthetics Of Reception

A. S. Byatt (1936-) is regarded as a famous British writer and critic in20th century. After her masterpiece Possession is published in1990, it wins Booker Prize, British highest literary award. Since then the momentum of its scholarship has never been reduced. Theorists of Aesthetics of Reception Hans Robert Jauss (1921-1997) and Wolfgang Iser (1926-2007) believe that readers play an indispensable role in the achievement of a work. The creation of works should be based on the indeterminacy, the text’s invitation structure to readers.Byatt emphasizes her reader consciousness several times in her theory books. As a matter of fact, the indeterminacy feature is flowing through the whole novel. Reader’s sense of participation and interpretation is aroused. Therefore, author in this thesis attempts to carry out an exploration into its indeterminacy by applying Aesthetics of Reception to explore in which places and in what way Byatt presents this feature and makes a concerted effort with her readers to understand it.After this analysis, it is found that Byatt conceives indeterminacy from three aspects. Through the indeterminate narration, reader’s horizon of expectation is constantly challenged. Readers are obliged to resort to wandering viewpoint to grasp the storyline. The uncertain beginning, fragmentary development and open ending make up the indeterminacy of plot. Byatt sets plenty blanks to invite reader’s imagination and connections. Indeterminacy of characters presents the indeterminate living predicament of human. Byatt entices her readers to be involved and participate in the interpretation of the meaning of the novel. Finally the thesis reaches its conclusion that success of the novel is achieved by the concerted effort of both the author and the reader. It goes further to explore the implication of the indeterminacy in this novel. One of the reasons why Byatt adopts this method is to display a way of perceiving the living predicament of the indeterminate human life, which requires human’s active participation and constant pursuit.