Viewing the Abnormal Aspects of Art Reception from Situation

Yao Yang

Abstract：emotion is the core of art reception， while American psychologist Arnold said that situation is in the initial position of emotional response sequence. It can be seen that situation and art reception are closely related. This article attempts to explore the relationship between situation and the abnormal aspects of art reception.

Key words：art reception; abnormal aspects; emotion; situation

Looking at the development of western literary theory  in the past hundred years， it has gone through roughly from the study of creators to the study of texts and then to the study of recipients. Reception aesthetics， readers reflection criticism and structuralism shift their attention to readers. Obviously， art reception plays an important role in the artistic activities.

The abnormal aspects of art reception is a common objective phenomenon.It is necessary for us to study it.First of all， lets focus on emotional issues.Because emotion is the core of art reception. Emotion generally refers to the expression of emotion. In fact， emotion has deeper connotation. we can get inspiration from Arnold， who defined the emotional response sequence as situation-evaluation-emotion. We found that situation is in the middle of our emotional response process， that is to say， we first have an evaluation of something before we produce emotion for something. Of course， our evaluation of something can be divided into explicit evaluation and implicit evaluation.We can be aware of explicit evaluation， while implicit evaluation is in our unconscious system， which is not felt by our consciousness. However， according to Freud's hierarchy of consciousness theory， implicit evaluation in unconsciousness can still control and influence our consciousness through pre-consciousness， that is， it can make us evaluate something unconsciously and then produce rich emotional experiences such as closeness or avoidance.If we include evaluation into emotion， that is what we often call emotional mode. Emotional mode is divided into two parts： expression form and evaluation content. Expression form is the emotion we mentioned above.This has been communicated with the concept of “mind”. The mind is a collection of emotional patterns， but this collection is a collection of emotional patterns learned by infants and children that hide the content of evaluation.The mind is also divided into two layers， one is the explicit layer， that is， the emotional expression form， and the other is the implicit layer， that is， the evaluation system in unconsciousness.We can infer from the above that the difference between the mental and emotional modes is only that the evaluation system in the implicit layer of the mind does not contain explicit evaluation content.Obviously， in order to detect the rich secrets of the mind through the evaluation system， it is necessary to touch the hidden evaluation system at the unconscious level.

Of course， the reason for the abnormal art reception is that the artwork touches the recipients explicit evaluation system or the recipients implicit evaluation system， that is the heart of recipient. When a work of art touches the recipient's heart， the situation is extremely complicated. Although the process analysis is extremely complicated， it is much simpler if we look at the results.Some art recipients feel edified and baptized after this spiritual collision， and some art recipients become psychopaths or even perverts.It can be seen that the emotional mode in art does not necessarily have a positive effect on the recipient， which is why art psychotherapy may fail.

When we understand the content of the soul， we know that the emotional model in art must have an evaluation that touches the soul before it is possible to make some variation in the original emotional model of the recipient.Of course， this variation has both positive and negative aspects.Then the role of evaluation is highlighted， so what will affect the recipient's evaluation of things？ We still look for the answer from Arnold's emotional response sequence.We find that situation is the reason that affects the recipient's evaluation of things.Hegel said： “The greatness and strength of personality can only be measured by the greatness and strength of contradictory opposites. Only when the mind is pierced from this contradictory contradiction can it return to unity.The more numerous and arduous the conflicts in the environment， the greater the destructive power of the conflicts and the mind's ability to stick to its own character， the more profound and strong the subject's character will become. "It can be seen that Hegel thinks highly of the conflict situation， which is not only what we are looking for.

In a conflict situation， the strength of the subject's character can be shown. This is the Hegels analysis about the character and situation in artistic works， that is， the care for the emotional mode in art. In a conflict situation， the strength of the character's character in art certainly brings a positive emotion to the recipient. “Positive emotions can resist alienation and rebuild human nature.” Therefore， our art should pay attention to conflict situations， reflect positive emotions and the positive evaluation brought about by them， and pay attention to dig deeply into the rich unconscious content of art recipients and the emotion of the recipients affected thereby.Only in this way our art can impress people and convey beauty.

References：

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[2] Rudolph Arnheim. Towards Art Psychology [M].University of California Press ，1966：126

[3]Zhu Liyuan. Introduction to Hegel's Aesthetics [M].Tianjin. Tianjin Education Press ，2013：141-142

[4] Hegel. Aesthetics [M]. Beijing. Commercial Press ，1996：227-228