The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, DeconstructionThe primary task of literary theory, Jonathan Culler asserts in the new edition of his classic in this field, is not to illuminate individual literary works but to explain the system of literary signification--the rules and conventions that determine a reader's understanding of a text and that make literary communication possible. In this wide-ranging book, he investigates the possibilities of a semiotics of literature. A new preface places The Pursuit of Signs in the context of major developments in the study of literature since publication of the original Cornell edition in 1981. |
Contents
Riffaterre and the Semiotics of Poetry | 87 |
Presupposition and Intertextuality | 100 |
Stanley Fish and the Righting of the Reader | 119 |
Apostrophe | 135 |
The Mirror Stage | 155 |
Story and Discourse in the Analysis of Narrative | 169 |
The Turns of Metaphor | 188 |
| 227 | |
| 239 | |
Common terms and phrases
Abrams activity analysis apostrophe argues assertion assumption attempt becomes Bloom catachresis claim cliché codes complex concept conventions course cultural deconstruction describe descriptive system discipline discourse discussion distinction effect example experience explicit explicitly fact fantasy fiction figures Freud function genre Harold Bloom historical hypogram Ibid identify imagination important inter interpretive operations intertextuality Jonathan Culler Laius Lamp language linguistic literal literary studies literary theory literature logic lyric M. H. Abrams matrix meaning metaphor metaphor and metonymy metonymy mimesis mirror mirror stage mode narrative narratology narrator nature notion object Oedipus origin particular perspective poem poet poetic poetry possible presupposes presuppositions prior problem produce psychoanalysis question readers reading referential relation relationship rhetorical Riffaterre Riffaterre's romantic semiosis semiotics sentence sequence signifying social Stanley Fish stanza story structure symbolic synecdoche temporal thought tion tive transformation treat tropes tropological understanding University Press various W. B. Yeats writing
References to this book
Post-colonial Studies: The Key Concepts Bill Ashcroft,Gareth Griffiths,Helen Tiffin No preview available - 2007 |