2. Literature Review

This thesis is mainly on advertising under the framework of reception aesthetic.

The aesthetic trend appeared in the Federal Republic of Germany in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Expert of literary history and literary esthetician of Federal Republic of Germany, Hans Robert Jauss (1982) and Wolfgang Iser (1978) proposed that aesthetic researches should pay their attention on the acceptance, reactions, reading process and aesthetic experience of readers as well as function of reception effects in social function of literature. (Yves Gambier, 2013:142) Researchers study the dynamic process of interaction between recipients and authors, works and readers through the pattern of question and answer. They make aesthetic experience a precondition for investigation.

2.1 Core Concepts of Reception Aesthetic

I choose to illustrate two core concepts of reception aesthetic, one is horizon of expectation, the other is defamiliarization. In this part, I state the definition of them in detail. Some samples are used to specify their application in advertising in the following part. 

2.1.1 Horizon of Expectation

French master of comparative literature, Pierre Brunel (1989) holds the opinion that “horizon of expectation” is the real filter. Readers who have different cultural backgrounds present different thinking models, lifestyles, knowledge structures and social customs, thereby they have different horizons of expectation. It means that scholars already have foresight before they do studies on advertising. Actually, there will be a structural pattern in scholars’ hearts which is based on social and inpidual reasons before they read the text. The pattern includes our minds, moral sentiments, aesthetic tastes, intuitive capacities, psychological endurance and acceptance levels and so on. Horizon of expectation is not changeless; it changes constantly with the development of social history and growth of readers.文献综述

2.1.2 Defamiliarization

The principle of defamiliarization in reception aesthetic means that through getting readers unfamiliar with the objects and making literary form difficult to be mastered to prolong the awarding process.