ABSTRACT:Narratologists tend to define the unnatural in terms of very strange textual elements alone, whereas they are very strange for somebody. A revised definition of the unnatural can make the theory more robust and precise—and more appropriate for cultures whose concepts of strangeness diverge from those in the secular West. Drawing on rhetorical poetics and reader response theory, this essay asks, "Unnatural for whom?" First it claims that the unnatural lies not in textual elements but in their relation to the authorial audience. If that audience experiences an element as strange, unnaturalness occurs. If an actual audience matches the authorial one, actual readers will also experience the unnaturalness; if there is a mismatch, they should at least recognize it.The essay's second claim is that this relational model can enhance the rigor and applicability of unnatural narratology. Theorists from the secular West, even when studying texts from other cultures, tend to neglect perspectives from those cultures and so treat their own notions of unnaturalness as if they were universal, whereas attention to authorial audiences can lead to more nuanced understandings.The relational model is tested on work by the influential theorists Jan Alber and Brian Richardson, showing how the model could benefit each in different ways. The conclusion reviews a few unnatural narratologists who have started exploring reader response. Such examples suggest that examining the role of the reader more explicitly and systematically, with particular attention to unfamiliar cultures, can make unnatural narratology more consistent, complete, and powerful.

中文翻译：

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非自然叙事学与被压抑的读者的回归

摘要：叙事学家倾向于仅根据非常奇怪的文本元素来定义不自然，而对于某些人来说，它们非常奇怪。对不自然的修订定义可以使该理论更加稳健和精确——并且更适合那些陌生概念与世俗西方不同的文化。本文借鉴修辞诗学和读者反应理论，提出“对谁不自然？” 首先，它声称不自然不在于文本元素，而在于它们与作者受众的关系。如果观众体验到一个奇怪的元素，就会出现不自然。如果实际受众与作者相符，实际读者也会体验到不自然；如果有不匹配，他们至少应该认识到它。论文' 第二个主张是这种关系模型可以增强非自然叙事学的严谨性和适用性。来自世俗西方的理论家，即使在研究来自其他文化的文本时，也倾向于忽视来自这些文化的观点，因此将他们自己的非自然观念视为普遍的，而对作者受众的关注可以导致更细微的理解。 关系模型有影响力的理论家 Jan Alber 和 Brian Richardson 的工作进行了测试，展示了该模型如何以不同的方式使每个人受益。结论回顾了一些开始探索读者反应的非自然叙事学家。这些例子表明，更明确、更系统地检查读者的角色，特别注意陌生的文化，可以使非自然叙事学更加一致、完整、