the journal of religion volume 65 issue 3 1985 [doi 10.2307%2f1203012] review by- gary comstock --...

8/20/2019 The Journal of Religion Volume 65 Issue 3 1985 [Doi 10.2307%2F1203012] Review by- Gary Comstock -- Toward …

1/3

Toward an Aesthetic of Reception by Hans Robert Jauss; Timothy BahtiReview by: Gary ComstockThe Journal of Religion, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Jul., 1985), pp. 445-446Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1203012 .

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2/3

Book

Reviews

JAUSS,

HANS

ROBERT. Toward an

Aesthetic

of

Reception.

Translated

by

TIMOTHY

BAHTI,

with

an introduction

by

PAUL

DE

MAN.

Minneapolis:

University

of

Minnesota

Press,

1982.

xxix +

231

pp.

$22.50

(cloth);

$8.95

(paper).

This

volume

presents

five

essays

by

the

reception-aesthetic

theorist,

Hans

Robert

Jauss.

The

first

essay Literary History

as

a

Challenge

to

Literary

Theory

originally appeared

(in

a

slightly

different

version)

in

one of

the

first

numbers

of

the

influential

journal

New

Literary

History.

Jauss's

piece

might

well

be

considered the initial

statement of that

journal.

His

thesis,

that

literary

history

must

become

a

primary

concern of

every

literary theory,

was indeed a

challenge

(Provokation)

to the

modern

critical

academy.

In

the

pastJauss's

work

has been

overshadowed

in

this

country by

that of

his

colleague

Wolfgang

Iser. Iser's

functionalist

approach

to

literature

(see

The

Act

of

Reading)

ought

not to be confused with his associate's at the

University

of

Konstanz.

Jauss,

a

scholar

of French and

German

literature,

clearly repre-

sents

a

more

pragmatic

and

historical

emphasis

in

the

Rezeptionsdsthetik

chool.

Jauss

describes the act of

interpretation

as

a

dialectic

of

history

and

struc-

ture.

On the one

hand,

all

interpretation

arises

out

of

the

needs and

purposes

of some

audience;

it

is

inescapably

rooted in

history.

Texts are

only

meaningful

to the

extent

that

they

mean

something

for

someone.

But

Jauss's

view is

not the

skeptical

view

of

poststructuralists

who

believe

that

every

postulated

meaning ultimately

self-deconstructs.

Jauss

maintains

firmly

that

objective

descriptions

of

textual

meaning

are

both

possible

and

necessary.

He

takes pains to describe exactly what such interpretations refer to; they refer to

the

horizonal

structures of

reception

in

which a

specific

work

confronts a

specific

audience. In a

provocative

introduction

of his

own,

Paul de

Man

expresses

Jauss's position

in

the dense

technical

language

of

structuralism: A

syntagmatic

displacement

within a

synchronic

system

becomes in

its

reception

a

paradigmatic

condensation

within a

diachrony

(p.

xiv).

If

this

sentence

makes

sense

to

you, Jauss's

book-along

with de

Man's

preface--is

must

reading.

Jauss's

hermeneutic

promises

to

do

for

literary

texts

what

Gadamer's has

done

for

Scripture;

it

restores to

our critical

focus

the

centrality

of

readers'

prejudgments and expectations. In many waysJauss's and Gadamer's projects

are

complementary.

Yet

there is an

important

difference

that

must be

noted.

Jauss

criticizes

Gadamer's

notion of the

classical

as

excessively

abstract,

charging

that

Gadamer

removes the

classic

from the

vicissitudes of

history.

The classic

text,

then,

is

no

longer

a

text that

depends

on its

continued

inter-

pretation

for

its

intelligibility;

it

becomes a

timeless,

platonic

essence

or

entity.

On

Gadamer's

view,

charges

Jauss,

the classic

falls

out

of the

relationship

of

question

and

answer

that is

constitutive

of

all

historical

tradition

(p.

31).

Whether

Jauss's

criticism

is

valid or

not

remains to be

seen.

As

de Man

cor-

rectly

remarks,

Jauss

seems

to have

little

appreciation

for

the

dialectical

con-

cept

of

historical

preservation (Bewahrung) n both Heidegger and Gadamer.

But the

issue

demands the

attention

of

hermeneutic

theologians

who

have

drawn

on

Gadamer's

explication

of

the

classic.

This

book,

along

with

Jauss's

magnum

opus,

Aesthetic

Experience

and

Literary

Hermeneutics,

ows

the

seeds of an

exciting

new

hermeneutical

program

with

a

heavy

emphasis

on

historical and

social

scientific

inquiry.

It

should

be

extremely

helpful

in

overcoming

the

musty

old

oppositions

of

historical

445


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3/3

The

Journal

of

Religion

he

Journal

of

Religion

versus

literary

riticism,

structuralist

ersus existentialist

eadings,

or

objective

versus

subjective

modes

of

interpretation.

An

important

collec-

tion that takes some impressive strides toward an aesthetic of reception.

GARY

COMSTOCK,

Iowa State

University.

WILLIAMS,

MICHAEL,

d.

Charismaand Sacred

Biography.

Journal

of the

Ameri-

can

Academy

of

Religion

Thematic

Studies,

vol.

48,

nos.

3,

4.

Chico,

Calif.:

Scholars

Press,

1982.

180

pp.

$19.50.

These

essays

under the

editorship

of Michael

A.

Williams,

a

member of

the

comparative

religion program faculty

at the

University

of

Washington,

are

the

offspringof two seminars at the

University

of

Washington

in 1977 and 1978.

The

first was

centered on

the

general

topic

of

sources of

authority

in

religious

traditions;

the

second was

concerned with one dimension of

religious

author-

ity

-

charisma

and focused on

the

relationship

between charismatic

indi-

viduals and the

biographies

written about them. Such

biographies

are

referred

to

by

most of the

authors

as sacred

biography,

one of the

types

of

religious

biography

identified

by

Frank

Reynolds

and Donald

Capps

in

The

Biographical

Process

Mouton,

1976),

a

book that served as a

catalyst

for the

1978

seminar.

Seven

of the

eight

essays

are

by

University

of

Washington

faculty.

They

include the

following topics:

charisma

and sacred

biography

(Charles

Keyes);

Athanasius'sbiographyof Saint Antony (Michael Williams); Luther and Zen

(Eugene

Webb);

John

and

Mary

Slocum,

founders of

the Indian

Shaker

Church

of

the

Pacific

Northwest

(Pamela

T.

Amoss); Samkaracarya

Karl

H.

Potter);

Shrimat

Pandurangashram

Swami,

a

nineteenth-century

Hindu

holy

man

(Frank

F.

Conlon);

and

two

twentieth-century

Thai

Buddhist

saints,

Khruiba

Siwichai

and

Acan Man

(Charles

Keyes).

Bruce

Lawrence of

Duke

University

centers on

Nizam

ad-dmn,

medieval Sufi

shaykh

of

the

Chishtiya

order of

North

India.

In

his

introductory

essay

on

charisma

and

sacred

biography,

Charles

Keyes

locates these

essays

in

the

intellectual

tradition

of

Max

Weber,

viewing

each

as

fundamentallyconcerned with the relation of charismaand authority.A major

issue

for

Keyes

is the

authority

of

the sacred

biography

itself. Is

the

biography

perceived

as

providing

an

authoritative

understanding

of the

sacred's

ntru-

sion

into the

world?

p.

17).

Various

factors

may

be

involved in

determining

whether a

biography

achieves this

status,

including

the

degree

to which

the

new

text is

compatible

with

existing

sacred

texts in

the

tradition,

and

whether

the

text has

official

or

unofficial

approval

of

the

leader's

successors,

or

other

ecclesiastical or

even

secular

authorities.

Virtually

all the

essays

demonstrate

that the

factual

accounting

of

the life

takes

a

back seat

to

the more

pressing

concern

for

establishing

the

charismatic

figure's

legitimacy.

Ironically,

this

usually means that the leaders'charismais not heightenedbut reducedas their

lives

and

achievements

are

assimilated to

existing

traditional

models

and

norms. In

effect,

the

sacred

biography

is an

integral part

of

the

routinization

of

charisma.

I

could not

begin

to

comment

on,

much

less

evaluate all

the

papers

in

this

volume in

the

space

allotted

me.

Suffice

it

to

say

that

those

by

Williams,

Webb, Amoss,

and

the

two

essays by

Keyes

have

the

most

methodological

versus

literary

riticism,

structuralist

ersus existentialist

eadings,

or

objective

versus

subjective

modes

of

interpretation.

An

important

collec-

tion that takes some impressive strides toward an aesthetic of reception.

GARY

COMSTOCK,

Iowa State

University.

WILLIAMS,

MICHAEL,

d.

Charismaand Sacred

Biography.

Journal

of the

Ameri-

can

Academy

of

Religion

Thematic

Studies,

vol.

48,

nos.

3,

4.

Chico,

Calif.:

Scholars

Press,

1982.

180

pp.

$19.50.

These

essays

under the

editorship

of Michael

A.

Williams,

a

member of

the

comparative

religion program faculty

at the

University

of

Washington,

are

the

offspringof two seminars at the

University

of

Washington

in 1977 and 1978.

The

first was

centered on

the

general

topic

of

sources of

authority

in

religious

traditions;

the

second was

concerned with one dimension of

religious

author-

ity

-

charisma

and focused on

the

relationship

between charismatic

indi-

viduals and the

biographies

written about them. Such

biographies

are

referred

to

by

most of the

authors

as sacred

biography,

one of the

types

of

religious

biography

identified

by

Frank

Reynolds

and Donald

Capps

in

The

Biographical

Process

Mouton,

1976),

a

book that served as a

catalyst

for the

1978

seminar.

Seven

of the

eight

essays

are

by

University

of

Washington

faculty.

They

include the

following topics:

charisma

and sacred

biography

(Charles

Keyes);

Athanasius'sbiographyof Saint Antony (Michael Williams); Luther and Zen

(Eugene

Webb);

John

and

Mary

Slocum,

founders of

the Indian

Shaker

Church

of

the

Pacific

Northwest

(Pamela

T.

Amoss); Samkaracarya

Karl

H.

Potter);

Shrimat

Pandurangashram

Swami,

a

nineteenth-century

Hindu

holy

man

(Frank

F.

Conlon);

and

two

twentieth-century

Thai

Buddhist

saints,

Khruiba

Siwichai

and

Acan Man

(Charles

Keyes).

Bruce

Lawrence of

Duke

University

centers on

Nizam

ad-dmn,

medieval Sufi

shaykh

of

the

Chishtiya

order of

North

India.

In

his

introductory

essay

on

charisma

and

sacred

biography,

Charles

Keyes

locates these

essays

in

the

intellectual

tradition

of

Max

Weber,

viewing

each

as

fundamentallyconcerned with the relation of charismaand authority.A major

issue

for

Keyes

is the

authority

of

the sacred

biography

itself. Is

the

biography

perceived

as

providing

an

authoritative

understanding

of the

sacred's

ntru-

sion

into the

world?

p.

17).

Various

factors

may

be

involved in

determining

whether a

biography

achieves this

status,

including

the

degree

to which

the

new

text is

compatible

with

existing

sacred

texts in

the

tradition,

and

whether

the

text has

official

or

unofficial

approval

of

the

leader's

successors,

or

other

ecclesiastical or

even

secular

authorities.

Virtually

all the

essays

demonstrate

that the

factual

accounting

of

the life

takes

a

back seat

to

the more

pressing

concern

for

establishing

the

charismatic

figure's

legitimacy.

Ironically,

this

usually means that the leaders'charismais not heightenedbut reducedas their

lives

and

achievements

are

assimilated to

existing

traditional

models

and

norms. In

effect,

the

sacred

biography

is an

integral part

of

the

routinization

of

charisma.

I

could not

begin

to

comment

on,

much

less

evaluate all

the

papers

in

this

volume in

the

space

allotted

me.

Suffice

it

to

say

that

those

by

Williams,

Webb, Amoss,

and

the

two

essays by

Keyes

have

the

most

methodological

44646

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the journal of religion volume 65 issue 3 1985 [doi 10.2307%2f1203012] review by- gary comstock --...

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