After reading Chapter 2 of Jonathan Culler’s “What is Literature and Does It Matter” the point that stuck out to me was when he mentioned fiction. Fiction can be complex, so many things can happen in works of fiction, it can originate from our everyday life, our imagination/dreams, etc. It can open many doors to writing many different kinds of books/ readings. It takes creativity to make readings based on fiction and it also requires the reader’s full attention, as reading fiction can really be really immersive, which is why fiction is what I love to read most.
Category Archives: Blog Post #2
Blog Post #2
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
Blog #2
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.
Blog Post #2
Culler came up with five points theorists about the nature of literature as well as the literature as the foregrounding of language, literature as the integration of language, literature as fiction, literature as aesthetic object, and literature as intertextual. I found the most interesting and useful is “Literature as fiction,” as the book states that “The literary work is a linguistic event which projects a fictional world that includes speaker, actors, events, and an implied audience.” meaning that the audience is who takes shape through the work’s decisions about what must be explained and what the audience presumed to know. In my opinion, the literature as fiction is what refers to imaginary scenarios which are not limited to characters and events. Also, I think that the fiction writers do a great literature work, by letting them develop their experience of thinking into the imaginary world. Finally, as I said before they create events, actors, audiences, and places in the perfect organized unreal society that is not related to historical events.
Blog #2
Jonathan culler stated that not everything can be considered literature but it is called literariness which is a non-literary phenomena and an example he gives is history. When we read a normal form of literature we learned that most stories have beginning climax and end that’s how we learned throughout our years in school, but now I learned that this is not tru, an example fuller gives is with historians. He proceeds to tell us how historians don’t have a predictive explanation based with science they can’t really show you how two things will necessary lead to one outcome
Another example he talks about is taking a text book and making pass as a novel or taking things out of a yellow book or sentences from random places yes they are readable but it doesn’t mean they are considered literature
“What is Literature and Does it Matter?”
In chapter 2 of “What is Literature and Does it Matter?” by Jonathan Culler, he characterizes the literature from different points. but I found the angle of the literature as a fictional the most interesting point. The literature relies on speaker, actors, events, and an implied audience (an audience that takes shape through the work’s decisions about what must be explained and what the audience is presumed to know)”. Because of this, people analyze an see the literature differently. It is not just about what the author angle but the audience experience also. And the time frame plays a significant role in what message you will receive. In addition, what are your culture and the environment that you raised? All these angles combined impact the conclusion you would have. So the author might express ideas but the imagination of the audience would conclude differently.
I also feel fiction helps us dive deeper to understands what behinds the literature.
Arabic is my first language and I have studied Arabic literature which has the same concepts where the audience should dig deeper to realize the ideas and what the author wants to express. Literature makes me more fluent in the language and it reflects the culture and the history of the country where you can communicate better with society.
Blog Post #2 “Literature as Aesthetic Object”
In the article What is literature and does it Matter? written by Jonathan Culler, I learned many important things regarding literature. Culler discusses definitions of literature from different angles or aspects. In my opinion, one of the most important angle is “Literature As Aesthetic Object” The aesthetic function of language dealt or went around the various levels of linguistic organization, the separation from practical context of utterance, it deviates from it real meaning or idea and the fictional relation to the world.
Further, aesthetic also refers to the theory of art and has involved debates about whether beauty is an objective property of a work of arts or a subjective response of the viewers and about the relation of the beautiful to the true and the good.
Aesthetic is also the name of the attempt to bridge the gap between the material and the spiritual world, between a world of forces and magnitudes and a world of concepts the combination, of sensuous forms (color, sounds), the spiritual content may bring together the material and the spiritual side.
Blog#2
After reading chapter II, “What is literature, and does it matter?” by Jonathan Culler, the point I was interested in was “Literature as fiction”. For me, the reason why fiction is interesting is there must be some parts connected to reality lives, they can be the political situation, the current events of the day even a war, hidden in author’s writing , but the fiction creates difference and the new worlds , the difference with reality unleashes the imagination of the reader and which can make us, the reader, to follow the character or the time to figure out what happen. I think that is why reading research texts is boring, they lack a creativity and some literary beautification.
Blog Post #2
After continuing to read Culler’s “What is Literature and Does it Matter?”, his explanation of Literature as Fiction really stuck with me. In my mind this angle of literature is the and easiest to see and explain. Culler explains that “the relation of what speakers say to what authors think is always a matter of interpretation”. Despite the fact that an author may have a specific scenario in mind, the fact that the words used to describe said scenario may be vague can cause the reader to modify what the scenario is. For example, Culler references, giving your friend specific directions (meet me at this café, at this time tomorrow for dinner) as opposed to the simplicity of “Inviting a Friend to Supper”, the title of a poem written by Ben Jonson. The first statement, allows the reader to understand specific “spatial and temporal referents”, whereas the title that Jonson chose gives some ambiguity and control to the readers imagination. There are many works of fiction that contain many references to our world, as many things can only be explained analogously. Despite that, not everyone may interpret the same words the same way, not because of ambiguity, but because of their understanding of the world. People of different cultures/heritages, genders, social classes or raised in different eras can read the same text and not have the same understanding. As well as the aspect of reading something during different stages in your life. A book you are forced to read in college as an adolescent may become much more meaningful or powerful if you choose to read it again at a different point in time. All of this is encompassed as the angle of literature as fiction.
Blog post #2
After reading the second part of Culler’s essay, “The nature of literature,” I considered the most interesting and useful part called The functions of literature.
In my opinion, essential in this section was the acknowledgment of the liberal attribute of the literature and its power over readers in general. I think, we should ask the central question of how considerable is such influence, or how dangerous or beneficial the literature could be for the moral, political, or even social aspects of our society?
What also resonated with me was when Culler said: “literature encourages solitary reading and reflection as the way to engage with the world…”(Culler, page 40). How much could we learn about other cultures without literature and its freed, artistic approach of the language, its different structures, and many times the abstract meaning of the words concerning the local politic, habits, conventions, or period of time?
In addition, literature compared to the noise of culture made me think about the significance of literature, especially if we want to live in a united society or have some ability to debate informatively about it. Thru literature, we can learn not only empathy, but we can better question what is going on around us and if it is good or not, but at the same time, keep our mind open to all other possible points of view.
