An Analysis Of The Blank And Readers’ Reconstruction In Lolita From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Reception aesthetics arises from the end of 1960 s and achieves its climax at 1970 s which is based on phenomenology and hermeneutics. It takes readers into consideration in literature study, breaking the traditional author-text study mode and establishing text-reader research paradigm. The birth of reception aesthetics opens up a new critical approach for literature study.Vladimir Nabokov(1899-1977) was a Russian-born American literary master, who had,been recognized as successful and fruitful in several fields. Nabokov was born on April 22 1899 in Saint Petersburg of Czarist Russian, to a wealthy and prominent family of minor nobility. He had created many works, while Lolita was the most controversial one for him. It is Lolita that makes him famous in the literature field all around the world. There are a number of researchers trying to analyze this novel from different perspectives. And it has been through different periods, too. On general, the studies mainly focus on three categories. The first is about the novel’s theme. The second is about the novel’s postmodernism features which explores the novel from the perspective of language skills, techniques, as well as structures and so on. And the third is discussed from the perspective of estheticism. However, most of the researches focus on the study of the text and the authors, failing to point out the relationship between readers and the text and ignore the feeling and position of the readers during the reading process.In this thesis, the author wants to analyze the blanks and readers’ reconstruction in Lolita from the perspective of reception aesthetics, and emphasize the readers’ important roles in the reading process. It is helpful for the further understanding of Lolita.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first one is introduction, then three chapters for the main body and the last conclusion.The first chapter gives a brief introduction to Vladimir Nabokov and his literary achievements and the plot of Lolita. Besides, it also describes the previous studies on Lolita in China as well as abroad and the feasibility and significance of this study.The second chapter is the theoretical foundation. It mainly introduces the background, the development of reception aesthetics and some relative vital conceptions, especially the blank theory and readers’ reconstruction.Chapter three applies Iser’s blank theory to interpret the art of blanks in Lolita, including semantic blanks and structural blanks. In the semantic blanks, Nabokov uses word games, irony and parody to arouse readers’ reflection. As for structural blanks, Nabokov adopts multiple narratives and the absence of Lolita to arouse readers’ imagination, calling readers to take part in the novel positively.Chapter four analyzes the reconstruction of readers’ expectation of Lolita from the perspective of Jauss’ horizon of expectation. The love story meets the readers’ reading expectation while the background limits the readers’ horizon of expectation greatly. While the specialty of the main characters and the subversion of the themes of the traditional novels and the particular writing techniques all break readers’ horizon of expectation, stimulating readers to rethink and reconstruct the expectation during the reading process.The last chapter of the paper comes to the conclusion. It summarizes the blanks and readers’ reconstruction in Lolita and confirms readers’ important role during the reading process. It also proves Lolita’s value.