Textual Analysis and Textual Theory

1. TextualAnalysis and TextualTheory Session One Søren Hattesen Balle English Department of Culture and Identity

2. Agenda • Introduction: the course, the website, the summary assignment • Introduction: today’s session • Presentation: text, context, theory • Classroomdiscussion: William Carlos Williams, ”This Is Just to Say” as literarytext, as literarytheory, and in context

3. Introduction: the course, the website, the summary assignment • http://soerenballe.wordpress.com/ • Forms of work, evaluation, and exam • Preparation, attendance, assignments, writtensit-downexam • Study guidelines • Talking and writingabout ”Text”: WHY?

4. Study guidelines • Duration of course: one semester (9 sessions) • Credits: 5 ETCS • Evaluation: 5-hour writtenexam at the university and with the participation of an externalexaminer (2 grades: one for content and one for writtenproficiency) • Exam date: week 22 or 23 • See also: http://magenta.ruc.dk/upload/application/pdf/eb84bd20/Study%20Guidelines%20october%202009.pdf (especiallypp. 11-12)

5. Study guidelines • Coursecontent and aims: • Introduction to the reading and understanding of British, American and Postcolonialliterary and non-literarytexts in a historical and theoreticalperspective • Introduction to relevant literary terms, concepts and methods • Introductionto relevant literarytheoretical and methodologicalapproaches • Competence in the analysis and contextualizing of literary and non-literarytexts (’closereading’, textual genre, culturalperiod, author’suniverse, etc.) • Competence in writtenproficiency

6. ”Text” • Human beingsareliteraryanimals: • Narrative, metaphor: wemakesense by tellingstories and usinganalogies • Anythingproduced by a human being in any medium canberead as a (literary) text: • Writing, speech, music, image, video, sculpture, installation • Everydayobjects: clothes, holidays, gestures, etc.

7. ”Text”

8. ”Text” • How to distinguishbetweentexts in the broad the sense of term and literarytexts in the restrictedsense of the term: • What is literature? • What is ”literariness”? • The lability of literature as a category vs. the stability of ”literariness” as a function • Whatdeterminesthat a text is read as a literarytext: • The literary as a distinctive feature aboutcertaintexts • Literature as an institution • Literature as anti-institutional → the paradox of literature

9. ”Text” • How to makesense of (literary) texts: • Whatdetermines the meaning of a (literary) text? • The author, the text, the code, the context, the reader? • The limits of interpretation: e.g. ’the intentionalfallacy’ and ’the affectivefallacy’ (W. Wimsatt & M. Beardsley)

10. ”Context” • Why is context important for the production of meaning in (literary) texts? • To read and interpret (literary) texts is somehow to put them in a context • To makesense of a (literary) text is to naturalizeorfamiliarizeit • Cf. J. Culler’s definition of the literarytext: ”The fictionality of literature separates language from othercontexts in which it mightbeused and leaves the work’s relation to the worldopen to interpretation” (32)

11. ”Context” • Is there more thanonecontext? • How do wedecidewhichcontext is the correctone? How do wedecide the relevance of context? • Cf. J. Culler: ”..ifwesaythatmeaning is context-bound, thenwe must addthatcontext is boundless: there is nodetermining in advancewhatmightcount as relevant, whatenlarging of contextmightbeable to shiftwhatweregard as the meaning of a text. Meaning is context-bound, but context is boundless” (67) • Is the textitsowncontext? (Cf. New Criticism and Culler, p. 24)

12. ”Context” • Whichcontexts (of interpretation) arethere: • Cf. G. Genette’stypology of transtexts: • Mirrortextuality: segment(s) withintext = model of the wholetext • Intertextuality: ”a relation of co-presencebetweentwoor more texts [..] the literalpresence of onetextwithinanother”, e.g., quotation, allusion, plagiarism, etc. • Paratextuality: the threshold of the text, the framing elements inside and outside the text: The peritext: title, forewords, dedications, epigraphs, prefaces, notes, epilogues; the epitext: public and private announcements by author and publisher, correspondences, diaries, confidences, interviews. • Metatextuality: the transtextualrelationshipbetweencommentary and the textthat is commented upon. Literarycriticism, reviews. • Hypertextuality: a latertext is superimposed upon an earlierone (imitation, pastiche, parody, emulation, simulation, etc.) • Architextuality: the relationship of inclusionwhich links the text to, for instance, the genre it represents.

13. ”Context”

14. ”Context” • The circumstances surrounding the production of a text are important for our understanding of that text. • A text informs us of the circumstances surrounding its production.

15. ”Theory” • ’Theory’ is not always ’literarytheory’ • Cf. J. Culler: since the 1960s ’theory’ has becomeassociatedwith the import of theoreticalwritings from fields of studyoutsideliterary studies • What is ’theory’: theory is the questioning of taken-for-grantedorcommon-senseassumptionsabouttexts, reading, representation, the author, meaning, etc. • Cf. Derrida’squestioning of ’writing’ as supplement and the relations betweenpresence and absence in representation • Theory is ’speculative’ and ’complex’ • What is the relationshipbetweentext and theory?

16. W.C. Williams, ”This Is Just to Say” • I have eaten • the plums • that were in • the icebox • and which • you were probably • saving • for breakfast • Forgive me • they were delicious • so sweet • and so cold

17. ”This Is Just to Say” • List reasons why you consider “This Is Just to Say” to be literature. • Conversely, can you think of any reasons why “This Is Just to Say” should not be regarded as literature? • Is “This Is Just to Say” poetry? • Can you think of a relevant context in which to place Williams’s poem? Your choice of context may be literary, historical, cultural, social, political, or other. Justify your choice of context. • Is Williams’spoem itself a theory of poetry?