RECEPTION STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

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RECEPTION STUDY

Ø  Influence study is an attempt to trace the influence of a writer

Ø  Influence Study is an attempt to trace the influence of a writer (Emitter) or for a set of writers upon another (Receiver) in the area of theme, idea, attitude, technique, etc.

Definition of Reception Study

Reception Study is another branch of Influence Study which aims at measuring the response to a writer's works abroad, considering the sales, surveys of reviews, criticism, translations, etc. of the particular work

It is concerned mainly with the relations between a work and its ambience, which includes the authors, readers, reviewers and the social surroundings

Influence and Reception

Ulrich Weisstein has dedicated a separate chapter for Reception Studies under 'Influence Studies'. He distinguishes between, 'Influence' and 'Reception’.

According to him 'Influence' should be used to denote the relations existing between finished literary products, while 'Reception' might serve to designate a wider range of subjects, namely the relations between these works, and their ambience. The study of literary reception points to the study of literary sociology

Literary Fortune

One special kind of Reception is the 'literary fortune', which helps in finding out the popularity of a particular work of an author and of its 'survival' ('Survival' is a term used by Horst Rudiger to refer to 'Reception'). The term, 'literary fortune' is used to refer to the initial reaction of the readers (V. Neelakandan, etc.)  and the writers (poets like Aranya Johar, Meena Kandhasamy) of a native country to a foreign work (The Triumph of Achilles) or author (Louise Elizabeth Gluck). Such a reception paves the way for the foreign author to leave a deeper impact on native literature.

This may be a short-lived victory but the popularity of a foreign author clearly establishes the direct interrelationship between the foreign and native works. At the same time, the time of reception is also an indication of the literary taste of the native audience.

Popularity is not a necessary condition for literary influence. Dante's The Divine Comedy is a good example. It failed to make a lasting impression in the foreign writers. It was appreciated by a few scholars like T.S. Eliot and Baudelaire.

Influence and Survival

Weisstein makes out the difference between 'influence' and 'survival’ (reception). He gives the example of Franz Kafka, the German -Czech novelist. Critics think that Kafka might have been influenced by Gogol, Dostoevsky and Dickens. But in his articles, letters and notebooks Kafka mentioned the name of Gustave Flaubert, the French novelist, whose life and works fascinated him. The kinship between the two writers is not literary but emotional and psychological

Myths around great writers

In the sociological realm, sometimes, personal myths or legends are woven around a writer by twisting biographical facts. New fictitious information is added in such cases. Weisstein gives the example of Dante again. Dante was considered a sorcerer in the Middle Ages on account of a passage he has written in 'Inferno' in The Divine Comedy (a long Italian narrative poetry). In our country also a lot of myths surround our great writers like Tiruvalluvar, Valmiki, Kambar, Bharathi, etc.

External factors responsible for writer's popularity

 A writer's popularity may be attributed to some external factors. For example, Pasternak became a popular novelist because he was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature for his Doctor Zhivago whereas he is a better poet. Again, Sylvia Plath's suicide turned her into a legend. Sometimes, a writer's popularity is due to the reception of another. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky became popular mainly due to the reception of Turgenev earlier.

The God of Small Things- Arundhati Roy

A writer known for a particular work

Again, a writer may be known for a particular work ignoring his other contributions. For a long time Goethe was known as the author of Werther. Only Bharathiyar’s nationalistic poems are praised at the expense of the deeper poetic qualities of his other works

Image of foreign authors by the native writers

 Another dimension added to the Reception Study is the image of the foreign authors projected by the native writers. A significant case is T.S. Eliot's comments on Goethe in his The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism. Eliot says that Goethe is a dabbler in both philosophy and poetry and he is more a man of the world than a poet. This is a clear case of Reception

Weisstein on Reception Study

Towards the close of his chapter on Reception, Weisstein makes an elaborate survey of reception studies by paying serious attention to the study of images or 'mirages', practised by the French critics Carre and Guyard. This is an investigation of distorted images of foreign people and their culture in a native literature. The notorious example is the misconception of India, by the Western readers, as a land of Maharajahs, snake-charmers and rope-tricksters.

For example, Slumdog Millionaire

Reception and Influence Studies to go together

As S.S. Prawer feels, Reception and Influence studies must go together. Reception studies are incomplete without making an assessment of the nature and function of literary agents or international mediators

 


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