(Originally written March 20, 2007 in Book 16)
Class Notes
Terry Eagleton
What is literature?
1) Literature is essentially imaginative
problem - some literature is historical. Some imaginative works are not literature.
2) Russian Formalism - we should define literature as that which transforms and intensifies language.
problem - we must presuppose what is literary language and ordinary language is
3) Literature is non-useful writing
4) Literature is valued writing
Where is the meaning?
4 Views:
1) Authorial Intention - meaning resides in the author's mind
2) Structuralism (semantic autonomy of language) meaning resides in the text
3) Post-Structuralism (reader response theory, deconstructionalism) - meaning resides in the reader's understanding
4) "Reflective equilibrium" - a combination of all other tree with a heavier emphasis on authorial intention and structuralism.
Problems
With Authorial intention - it implies that once the author is dead we'll never know what the text meant
With Structuralism - the author's intent is rendered completely irrelevant
With Post-Structuralism - it removes all meaning from the author and his/her text
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