Perception of Puppets According to Wolfgang Iser’s Theory of “Reception Aesthetics”

Abstract
From the times of Plato and Aristotle and the philosophers after them, the reader is always assumed to have a passive role in reading the text and perceiving its meaning, and receive only what the author provides. However, many of these equations changed in the modern era and theoreticians appeared whose focus was not just on the writer. They realized that the reader or the audience had a special place and his presence was considered to be important. Wolfgang Iser is one of the most important thinkers who theorized in this field. He is one of the founders of the Literary School of Konstanz which introduced the theory of reception aesthetics. Issues mentioned in this school received a fundamental influence from the field of phenomenology. This school considered the audience as an active agent in the process of reading and creating the literary meaning. Iser believed that there are gaps and blanks in any literary work and wanted to prove that the audience gives life to the art works by filling these. He significantly expanded his view by expressing some ways such as hypothesis making, strategy of reading, omission and highlighting, bridging, etc. He attached significant importance to the audience and knew that the process of completing art works depends on the audience’s reception. This is an issue which is very important in certain branches of performing arts such as theater and puppet show, because theater cannot be implemented without the audience. So, according to what Iser says about literature, the writer attempts to open a way in theater to explain what is happening to the audience when he is watching a show. This paper focuses on the spectator’s action of filling gaps and blanks during the show and investigates the process of understanding and perceiving of the audience. For further explanation of the issue, the research investigates the mental processes of the audience within the methods mentioned in the theory of Iser such as hypothesis making, strategies of reading, omission and highlighting and etc. This study aims to prove that if the audience does not collaborate to fill the gaps while watching the puppet show, it does not follow an appropriate strategy and hypothesis and finally it does not pay attention to omissions and highlighting, the show will decline from an artwork to a meaningless entertainment activity and lose its deeper relations with the audience. In that case, puppets will not have their dramatic natures and will turn into simple toys. This paper, by the descriptive–analytical methodology, intends to deliberate on the process of reading the puppets in puppet shows particularly according to Iser’s theory.