Name that Theorist
He asserted that the entire history of Western metaphysics was founded on the fundamental error that there is a transcendental signified or origin of origins (an external point of reference upon which one may build a concept or philosophy).
Who is Jacques Derrida?
"Contrary to popular misconceptions, structuralism does not believe in an otherworldly realm of pure structure, but rather in the tendency of systems (natural and social) to exhibit structural relations. Structuralism is the study of these relations and the knowledge that they afford of the system itself. it is always the study of human being(s) in the world."
What is "Structuralism and Formalism" in the Blackwell chapter?
Coined by Victor Shklovsky, this term refers to the effect achieved by using language in an original way in literary works (particularly in poetry) to disrupt our habitual perception of the world. This enables us to 'see' things differently and to re-experience the sensations of everyday life.
What is defamiliarization?
Based upon the principles of structural linguistics developed by Saussure, this school of theory developed in the early 1900s and reached its peak in the 1950s to 1960s.
For these theorists, they propose that human culture must be understood by its relationship to a broader, organizing system. One must study these in an organized, 'scientific' way to determine the underlying constants or laws. Literature, as a product of human culture, can be close-studied in this way.
What is Structuralism?
An individual speech utterance (willful and intentional - it is both the written and spoken language as experienced in everyday life)
vs.
Language as an ordered system composed of the union of meanings and "sound images" (i.e. the rules and conventions of a given language)
What is parole and langue?
Who is Ferdinand de Saussure?
What is the McMaster Land Acknowledgement?
This science concentrates upon the patterns and functions of language itself.
What is semiology?
This school of theory developed in the 1970s and "emphasized a methodological shift, a move away from explanation by origin, order by opposition, fixed or closed signification and the person as a unified subject.
What is Post-Structuralism?
Originating in Saussurean structuralist theory, this phrase refers to a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
For Saussure this concept is not a contradictory relation, rather it defines a structural, or complementary one. Jacques Derrida disagreed, he sought to deconstruct these, as he asserted that one assumes a role of dominance over the other.
What is binary opposition?
He is interested in language as 'discourse.' As a member of the school of Russian Formalism, he studies language usage "in its concrete living totality," rather than in the abstract as do the Structuralists. He is also interested in the political ramifications of language and discourse.
Who is Mikhail Bakhtin?
"Duncan Campbell Scott, while trying to legislate us to death, wrote our obituary in his poetry ... He was killing us in words but Pauline was keeping us alive. She wrote about race and gender and challenged the ideas of Scott and his ilk that the 'red man' was dying.
Who is Rosanna Deerchild and "My Poem is an Indian Woman"?
Initially introduced by Julia Kristeva, this is the name of the term often given to the manner in which texts of all sorts (oral, visual, literary, virtual) contain references to other texts that have, in some way, contributed to their production and signification.
What is intertextuality?
This school of theory is part of Formalism. It developed in the mid-19th C and emphasized the practice of close reading; key terms and concepts of its literary criticism include ambiguity, irony, paradox, and tension.
Cleanth Brooks' idea of poetry as a "Well-Wrought Urn" epitomizes this school. It proposed that literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.
What is New Criticism?
The Western belief that there is an ultimate reality or center of truth that can serve as the basis for all our thoughts and actions. In this philosophy words and language are considered the fundamental expression of an external reality.
What is logocentrism?
One early aspect of his work approached cultural myths from a semiological perspective and investigated how newspapers, art, cinema, advertisements, and other 'everyday' objects "dress up a reality which, even though it is the one we live in, is undoubtedly determined by history."
Who is Roland Barthes?
"In a little more than a hundred years, we, the immigrant settlers of this beautiful land, have managed to poison the land and our food sources and our own bodies to drastically as to jeopardize the future of all life in this country."
Who is Di Brandt in "This land that I love, this wide, wide prairie"?
The redefinition of writing which asserts that writing is actually a precondition for and prior to speech.
"By equating writing with free-play or the element of undecidability at the center of all systems of communication, Derrida declares that writing actually governs language, thereby negating the speech/writing hierarchy of Western metaphysics."
What is Arche-writing?
This school of literary criticism began in Russia the 1920s. It posited the autonomy of a work of art and privileged the language of literature from other kinds of language.
This school proposed the objective and ‘scientific’ examination of literature through means of identifiable and analysable devices. i.e the defamiliarization of language.
These critics suggest that 'form' is what makes something art/literature, so in order to understand. a work of art one must study its form.
What is Formalism?
This is the belief that sounds and speech are inherently superior to, or more primary than, written language. According to this theory, speech signifies presence (transparent, immediate, truth, and accuracy), while writing signifies absence (it is the sign of a sign and is therefore secondary, derivative, artificial, and potentially misleading).
What is Phonocentrism?
He emphasized the poetic function of language and distinguished between the metaphoric and metonymic poles of language.
"he asserts his answer to logocentrism and other Western elements by coining a new word and concept: différance."
Who is Derrida in the Bressler reading?
This term, coined by Derrida, simultaneously means "to defer, postpone, or delay" and "to differ, to be different from." This is a reading strategy developed by Derrida that proposes to temporarily reverse the hierarchy of binaries.
What is Différance?
This school of theory was popular in the 18th & 19th centuries. It not only analyzes a writer's biography to show the relationship between the author's life and their works of literature but also sees a literary work as a reflection of its author's historical period.
What is Historical-Biographical Criticism?
This 1967 essay argued against the method of reading and criticism that relied on aspects of the author's identity or 'intention' in order to distill meaning from the author's work.
He asserted: "To give a text an author...is to impose a limit on that text."
What is "Death of the Author"?