In the first 10 pages of the chapter, Culler outlines the importance of how we are able to define literature. He states that it is a very difficult question to answer and in many ways, there isn’t any singular answer. He also states that many pieces of works that wouldn’t usually be called literature could still tie to some aspects of what literary is. Culler says that literature comes in “all shapes and sizes.” These shapes and sizes can vary from poetry to depicting historical events. The essence of literature is particularly essential since many varieties of poetry are easily recognized due to their distinct structure and purpose. Literature creates an imaginary environment in which the reader is exposed to a complicated tale weaved together using many approaches. Literature is important because philosophy has increased the literariness of writings of all kinds. This is very important when thinking about definitions of literature because it broadens our knowledge deeper into how literary can be divided into. From past pieces of work to modern. But, again, literature has different meanings for different people bringing about, altogether, different perspective. So the question of what is literature can’t really be answered using a single word or sentence.

One question that stayed with me as I read this chapter is “what is literature then, since there isn’t a clear single answer?” As I continue reading the rest of the book, I think it will be clear that the answer is perspective. Many literary theorists have different answers of what literature can be and why it matters. And the answers can vary to how literary ties to poetry and historical pieces of event to rhetoric from how it comes in all shapes and sizes and even ties to pieces of work that wouldn’t usually be listed under the category of literary. There isn’t a clear answer of what literature can be listed under because it can be tied to all pieces of work. As theorists dig deeper into what literature is, one thing for sure is, that it broadens the literary “universe” and strengthens our thinking in a variety of things.

Benito Cereno is often cited as a powerful statement on enslavement in the U.S. Now that you have finished the novella, what are your thoughts about how Herman Melville depicted this practice? Does the novella depict enslavement in a negative or a positive light? Who do we sympathize with at the conclusion of the story? What should we make of Delano’s blindness?

-The Author Herman Melville shows some of what was happening in the past in America. This means that whatever happened in the past is worse because stories do not always fully show the facts. I see that there is no main person in this story because everyone lost his life, but I really feel sad and bad for all the characters. Knowing that they can improve those weak points and making the reader interesting in the topic.

I found intention and context to be the most interesting and important concepts when it comes to language and meaning because it makes the most sense. Intention is one of the most important parts of communicating and the use of language. When reading, leaving the meaning up to interpretation by the reader seems to be counterproductive as it leaves many with more confusion rather than clarity in an answer, after all this is why we choose to read isn’t it? We search for an answer or a satisfaction to our curiosity and without direction this can’t be achieved. And with context, language has no meaning. There is no ground to stand on or point in space to start without some sort pre-existing viewpoint, biased or unbiased, objective or subjective

Throughout the latter half of Culler’s “What is Literature and Does it Matter?”, he defines literature through several different angles. The one that I found to be a good descriptor of what literature is was the “Literature as fiction” viewpoint. Here, Culler states that in literature, a lot more than just the character or the setting can be fictional. In literature the grammar, tense, perspective, events, who, what, where, when and why and even the audience are up for interpretation; what is said can not be taken at face value. In fact, it’s even up to the reader on whether or not the literature is studied from an objective or subjective viewpoint. This is unlike non-fiction, where there is not much wiggle room left for interpretation

In chapter 4 of “Literature, meaning, and interpretation” by Johnathan Culler, the relationship between language and meaning is that language is when we use language to express our feelings and thoughts, and meaning is to provide largely by context and experience. This means that meaning is basically a message of something that someone expresses about something or anybody. Also, what I found more interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning is “Language and Thought” because it talked about various ways language has an impact on everything. He said that “Different languages divide up the word differently.” This means that the language we use influences our surroundings. Another thing that caught my attention is the determination of our thoughts based on the language we speak because as English is my second language some words are written the same, but the structure and rules are entirely different in the way that the sentences are written, and the way that most of them are expressed may not have the same feeling when I say it in my native language (Spanish) than when I say it in English.

“Well there is a difference between asking about the meaning of a text (the poem as a whole) and measure of the word”

The reason I choose that from the text because it stuck out to me and I thought about it because it’s very true. When I took remedial classes we’ve done a lot of readings regarding poem which in fact I felt that it was difficult trying to break the meaning down of them due to it someone personal feelings. After I finally understood how to break down poems to understand them it became better especially the ones that were a little bit longer those were bigger tasks. In the reading, culler did mention that some poems have a rhyme to it or a different flow I would say myself watch you catch the flow of the poem it will come a little different on how you would catch the drift of the direction the poem may go.

In “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation,” Culler discusses the relationship between language and meaning, how language produces meaning. What is one idea from this chapter that strikes you as interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning?

– In chapter 4 “ Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation”, Culler discusses that language has a big impact on society and the relationship between language has the same meaning but different pronunciations. One idea from this chapter that strikes me is that language is not a ‘Nomenclature’ that provides labels for pre-existing categories; it generates its own categories, and many languages relate to one another because of how they use the same vocabulary or pronunciations.

Q-Consider the part of this chapter that includes and continues after the section titled “The nature of literature.” In this part of the chapter Culler defines “literature” from several angles. Which of these angles do you find most interesting and useful? Why?

-After reading chapter 2, the section titled “The nature of literature” the reason why it was really interesting and useful because of the way the author had compared life and Events that accrue during an even that takes place in daily life such as how much do we learn from our culture without literature. I think reading research papers is really unrelieved because of lack of interesting topics or lack of creativity.