Expectation horizon (literature)

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The literary concept of the horizon of expectations describes a complex of expectations and assumptions about a ( literary ) work in its (creation) time.

As a literary scientific term , the horizon of expectations as a literary historical construct generally refers to a fictitious quantity rather than a set of facts. On the basis of this, however, the expectation horizon is reconstructed as far as possible, usually with the help of typifications , generalizations and abstractions . Accordingly, the horizon of expectations includes everything that can be reasonably assumed about contemporary expectations when a literary work or text (or another work of art) appears. The expectation horizon accordingly formulates the framework conditions of the respective contemporary historical reception of a literary text or work of art, which in turn may have already been considered by the author of the work.

As a central concept in the research of the act of reading in the aesthetics of reception , the horizon of expectations was developed as a literary scientific term by Hans Robert Jauß together with Wolfgang Iser . In his early pioneering inaugural lecture on the history of literature as a provocation of literary studies , Jauß names three different ways in which the author can anticipate the reader's reaction : first, through known norms or the immanent poetics of the genre ; the opposition of fiction and reality. The third factor implies that the reader can perceive a new work both in the narrower horizon of his literary expectation and in the wider horizon of his life experience. With the concept of the horizon of expectations, however, Jauß mainly emphasizes the importance of cultural knowledge that the recipient brings to the text, i.e., according to Jauß and Iser, the reader relates the text to his own ideological and aesthetic knowledge.

However, since the text was produced in and for its epoch , only the knowledge of its epoch could logically be relevant for its understanding. However, this postulate of the aesthetic reception approach was never fulfilled in practice by Jauß and Iser either.

Depending on the level of awareness of the text, the above factors combine to form a complex tradition that the reader is confronted with when reading the text. Accordingly, more specific expectations are placed on known texts than on texts that are not in any such tradition.

In a broader sense, the horizon of expectations includes factors from different areas that include literary and art-related knowledge as well as knowledge about contemporary reality, culture and society .

In addition to knowledge of the genre of the work, the tradition in which it stands, of the author, his group and other works by him, knowledge of the aesthetic or literary theoretical orientation of the respective author belongs to the literary horizon of expectations .

With regard to contemporary realities of life and culture, general insights as well as insights into the particular potential for problems or preferences at the time the work was created, about contemporary social, scientific or political realities or the expectations resulting from these assumptions play a role.

The expectation horizon, if it can be reliably reconstructed, can be of decisive importance in the interpretation of a literary text and is therefore the focus of scientific interest , especially in literary hermeneutics .

In this literary scholarly direction, the expectation horizon represents the counterpart to the fundamental problem of all efforts to understand, since the expectation horizon of today's readership of a literary text (i.e. also that of the respective interpreter) cannot be identified with the contemporary expectation horizon, so a variant in this respect as well of the hermeneutic circle .

On the other hand, however, new models of understanding can be formulated on the basis of the expected horizon : For example, the accumulation of all historical processes of understanding can be used to interpret the actual meaning of a literary work. Likewise, in the interpretation process, an attempt can be made to establish an understanding of the work that has arisen on the basis of a so-called "horizon merging" and which consciously includes the interpreter's subjective horizon as a new or even the only possible way of understanding.

literature

  • Jeremy Hawthorne: Reception Aesthetics . In: Jeremy Hawthorne: Basic Concepts of Modern Literary Theory · A Handbook . Translated by Waltraud Korb. Francke Verlag , Tübingen and Basel 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1756-6 , pp. 275f.
  • Hans Robert Jauß : History of literature as a provocation of literary studies . In: R. Warning (Ed.): Reception aesthetics . Fink Verlag , 4th edition, Munich 1994, pp. 126-162.
  • Uwe Spörl: Horizon of expectation . In: Uwe Spörl: Basislexikon Literaturwissenschaft . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-506-99003-9 , pp. 130-132.
  • Marianne Wünsch: Reception . In: Horst Brunner and Rainer Moritz (eds.): Literary Studies Lexicon · Basic concepts of German studies . Schmidt Verlag , 2nd revised and expanded edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-503-07982-3 , pp. 341-344.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Spörl: horizon of expectations . In: Uwe Spörl: Basislexikon Literaturwissenschaft . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-506-99003-9 , pp. 130-132. See also Jeremy Hawthorne: Reception Aesthetics . In: Jeremy Hawthorne: Basic Concepts of Modern Literary Theory · A Handbook . Translated by Waltraud Korb. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1756-6 , pp. 275f.
  2. ^ Uwe Spörl: Basislexikon Literaturwissenschaft . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-506-99003-9 , pp. 130f.
  3. ↑ Jeremy Hawthorne: Reception Aesthetics . In: Jeremy Hawthorne: Basic Concepts of Modern Literary Theory · A Handbook . Translated by Waltraud Korb. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1756-6 , pp. 275f. Hawthorne refers to Hans Robert Jauß: History of literature as a provocation of literary studies. Konstanz 1967. See also Marianne Wünsch: Reception . In: Horst Brunner and Rainer Moritz (eds.): Literary Studies Lexicon · Basic concepts of German studies . 2nd revised and expanded edition, Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-503-07982-3 , p. 342ff.
  4. ↑ Jeremy Hawthorne: Basic Concepts of Modern Literary Theory · A Handbook . Translated by Waltraud Korb. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1756-6 , pp. 275f.
  5. ^ A b c Uwe Spörl: Basislexikon Literaturwissenschaft . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-506-99003-9 , pp. 131f.