1. Language, Meaning, Interpretation
Culler’s Chapter 4:
Language, Meaning, Interpretation

2. Meaning in Literature Meaning of a text. Meaning of a word.
Meaning of an utterance: Who says it? Under what conditions? How does it perform?
Obviously, these are all interrelated. See p. 53

3. Meaning is based on Difference
“We” is opposed to “I”.
“Dance” is opposed to “standing still”.
“Suppose” is opposed to “know”.

4. Saussure’s Theory of Language
Language is a system of differences.
Language is a system of signs and the key fact is that the sign is arbitrary.
Relations between signifier and signified are based on conventions, not natural resemblences. (Different languages use different words to indicate the same object.)
The meaning of a word is composed of the combination of (form) signifier and (meaning) signified. (Meaning changes when the speaker and listener changes.)
Language is a system of concepts. It is a way of thinking.

5. Language and Thought
One theory says language offers ways to express pre-existing thought.
Another theory says that language determines what we can think and say.
Which do you think?
See p. 56

6. Ways to study literature.
Linguistics: reconstructs the system or grammar of a language. (Not interested in meaning, but in how structures create meaning.)
Poetics: starts with meaning and asks how it is achieved.
Hermeneutics: starts with texts and asks what they mean.

7. Poetics Poetics asks questions like:
Why is one ending more successful than another?
Why does one combination of images make sense?
What conventions do readers use to interpret a work?

8. Hermeneutics Hermeneutics asks questions like:
What does this line mean?
What does this poem tell us about the human condition?
What contexts establish this kind of meaning?
Why does it mean what it means to a particular reader?

9. Readers and Meaning
Reader Response theory – To interpret a work is to tell the story of reading.
Horizon of expectations embedded in the reader. What factors influence why you “read” or interpret the way you do.

10. Interpretation
Playing the “about” game. So, what is this work really about?
If you play the game right, then your answer must be speculative, it can’t be obvious.
See p. 61.

11. Your beliefs determine what you’ll think the text is “about.”
If you’re a Marxist, you’ll look for class struggle.
If you’re a psychoanalyst, you’ll look for Oedipal conflicts.
If you’re a feminist, you’ll look for asymmetry in gender relationships.
If you’re a post-colonialist, you’ll look for evidence of imperialist domination.
You can consciously choose a position from which to evaluate a text.

12. Interpretation(s)
Do we need to determine that there are “right” and “wrong” interpretations?
No, because such arguments are never settled. A meaning can always change.
Yes, because the “events” of the text must support any particular hypothesis. You can’t make a work mean just anything. You have to convince others of the pertinence of your reading.

13. Meaning, Intention, Context
What determines Meaning?
Intention (of author)
Text
Context
Reader
These are the same four issues we talked about when we discussed fiction: Privileging the reader, text, author, or world.

14. Author Intentional Fallacy – p. 62
Meaning, these days isn’t tied to inner intention, but to personal or historical circumstances. What sort of act was author performing, given the situation of the moment.
Your Alvarez paper asked this kind of question about meaning.

15. Readers
If you privilege the reader, does that mean that “anything goes?”
No, because you still have to persuade others that it is pertinent.
Meaning is both what we understand and what in the text we try to understand.

16. Context
More than anything these days, meaning is determined by context. See p. 63

17. Journals for Harjo
What do you pay attention to when you’re interpreting these texts?
Author’s intentions?
Reader’s response?
Context?
Text?
Is one more important than the others? Why?

18. More Harjo Woman Hanging, 3079 Vision, 3083 Anchorage, 3084
Deer Dancer, 3085