I found Culler defining “literature” from the angle of it being an intertextual or a self-reflexive construct to be the most interesting. “Recent theorists have argued that works are made out of other works: made possible by prior works which they take up, repeat, challenge, transform.”(pg34) It seems obvious once said aloud; and certainly with respect to a purely educational piece, say an Emergency Medical Technician textbook, that most assuredly must be updated regularly. But Culler is specifically referring to “literary” works here.

What makes a poem a poem? Any poem worth its salt is something more than a mere collection of pretty words. Poems contain “figures of speech”, a distinctive tone, and they very often rhyme. They certainly say things in a more enticing manner than had they just said them plainly, in a more casual or informative way. And we know this only due to the countless poems that came before to inform us on what makes a poem. But the bumper stickers’ explanation is what really intrigued me.

In fact, I caught myself explaining it to a friend in a very similar manner to how Culler explains it here. “Nuke a Whale for Jesus!”(pg35) is a hilarious play on a combination of previous bumper stickers. However, if “No Nukes”, “Save the Whales”, and “Jesus Saves” had not existed, “Nuke a Whale for Jesus” would be utter, possibly insulting, nonsense on the back of someone’s car. Rather than the funny jab at bumper stickers, in general, that it serves to be.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.