In “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation” the idea that most strikes me as interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning was, meaning and context/ intention. There’s so many types of literature and all of them can be interpreted in different ways by different people, an author could write something with one intention and meaning, but the reader can view it a completely different way and change it up. In doing that, the reading can also be expanded upon and made into a new thing, and that can again be interpreted in a different way and it can keep continuing.
Category Archives: Blog posts
Blog 5
I watched a movie named Lucifer, and I liked the plot and discourse of the movie. The plot is about how the king of hell, Lucifer Morningstar, gets bored to stay in hell and decides to change his lifestyle. He decides to live in Los Angeles and owns a nightclub named Lux. Here, he considers himself a retired King who should enjoy life. Lucifer meets with a Detective (Chloe) in his club, and their chemistry leads them to work together at LAPD, where he teams up with Detective Chloe as a consultant to help solve cases. His ability to know people’s desires helps solve the crimes, and he tries to discipline criminals by use of the law. The movie has discoursed unlimited length on religion, matters regarding God and his judgment of sending Lucifer to rule hell.
In the narrative “what stories do,” Culler discusses the purpose of narratives. First, he says that stories give the readers pleasure and desire. The readers get the pleasure because the stories mostly talk about lives and are twisted at some point, and when things turn out wrong or good, there’s a pleasure experienced. Desire arises when a reader gets curious to know what happens next or how the narrative ends. The urge to know everything the story is desire. Also, Culler explains that narratives might be a source of knowledge or create illusions in the reader’s mind. He says that it would be best if a reader would be wiser after reading the narrative, rather than sadder. In my opinion, what Culler says should be helpful to everyone who reads because it can help them understand better what the stories do. I think Culler’s message in this section explains how the readers feel and how much stories influence their lives.
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
Blog 4#
The stylistic and linguistic devices an artist use in their work contribute to the meaning of their work. Culler aims to demonstrate the relationship between poetry and rhetoric by exploring their similarities and distinguishing characteristics. Although there are other tools that writers can use, some devices contribute to the creation of mental images and experiences that a reader derives while reading. The scholars highlight the using metaphors, irony, metonymy and synecdoche in literary work like poetry as the most appropriate tools towards that goal which has earned them the phrase “master tropes”. Studying the language of poetry broadens a person’s thinking and it helps both the writer and reader in determining many meanings from the tools that are in use. In “Driving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich the persona uses first person to tell a narrative that draws in the reader’s empathy by drawing them in using these figures of speech to shape their experience. In my view the poem shifts the reader’s perspectives regarding situations since they can try to analyze a situation from the persona’s position. “I am having to do this/ not like Cousteau with his/ assiduous team/ aboard the sun-flooded schooner/ but here alone” give a peak into the mental state of the person. The use of metaphors further describe the circumstances which a reader can use to derive deeper meaning. The persona says “We are, I am, you are by cowardice or courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear” is symbolic of the struggles people have especially from historical injustices that have very few recorded instances of personal experiences.
literature opens our eyes and makes us see more than just what the front door shows. It helps us realize the wide world outside, surrounding us. With this, we begin to learn, ask questions, and build our intuitions and instincts. We expand our minds. Literature means interpretation according to Jonathan Culler. Language expresses that existing idea by culler theory. Every language has its own influence and action of its speakers. The important point is when anyone has learned a new language is stuck in many ways. Culler states three different dimensions there are the meaning of the world. Culler states that the meaning of work is that the accomplished what the writer thinks during the process of writing and what the writer’s thinking at some moment in writing. It is about what people understand in the text. Culler says meaning is context bound but context is boundless. People’s cognition of such a symbol is often related to their experience or education , because people’s cognition of words is endowed with meaning. Language has certain limitations on the author’s way of expression that are limited by the rigidity of language. When reading literary works, the most important thing is how the author analyzes the situation.Talking about the use of language, two things are important – Displacement and Open-endedness. literature sources from way back in history to give them at least some examples of language of that time. A single literary source, such as an old epic, will not show every peculiarity of the language used, both written and spoken, at that time, but it is at least something to start with when you’re trying to find out what the language was like back in those days.
“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 #1 – What is Literature and Does it Matter?
I’ve always known the word “literature” to mean ” anything in relation to books, poems, and plays”. After reading and analyzing the short excerpt from Jonathan Culler, I can say the definition is a tad bit more complicated. Throughout the chapter, Culler goes on about how non-literary works can have components of a literary work, how different cultures can interpret literature in their own way, how certain texts can be considered literature while others cannot, etc. However, I found Culler’s comparison of literature to weeds to be the most important aspect of this chapter because it makes it easier for us to understand why this question needs to be asked, and more importantly, answered, in the first place.
What makes literature, literature? What makes a weed a weed? If I were to come up with my own example, I would say these ponderings are analogous to the question “what makes someone a cook?”. If I can scramble eggs and I know how to turn on an oven, does that make me a cook? Or do I have to know how to prepare an ossobuco and a gremolata, flute a mushroom, truss a chicken, and tourne a potato to be considered a cook? It’s when questions like these pop up that it becomes more apparent why finding the margins for the definition of “literature” is important, otherwise the guidelines would be too arbitrary to know when something is literary and when its not.
The question that I kept asking myself during the reading was if literature can ever truly have a solid definition. I know its a stretch – literature is an art form, and art is VERY open to interpretation – so how/when would an agreeable definition ever come to hold? Culler mentions this, that literature can have no solid definition because it is based on the observer’s own interpretations, analysis, questions, and reflections of the text. However, my question still stands
Sorry For The Late Entrance!
Hey guys! My name is Jonah Charles and I was born and raised in NYC. I’m currently attending LAGCC to pursue a degree in Culinary Management in the hopes that one day I can own my own restaurant. Alongside LaGuardia, I am also attending ICE – The Institute of Culinary Education – down by the World Trade Center, where I’m enrolled in the Culinary Arts course. I also have a job as a prep cook at Grand Lux Café (sister restaurant to The Cheesecake Factory) in Garden City, LI. I’ve always cooked food since I was little and I am in love with all the flavors the world has to offer, so I figured “why not make a career out of this?”. Apart from school and cooking, my hobbies/interests include drawing, fashion, music (trap/rap/classical/jazz/dancehall are my faves), video games, TV and movies, anime, manga, traveling, and exercise (resistance training and cardio mostly). I’ve never been great at English classes, mostly because my ADD makes it so I have to read a page 2-3 times for it to really sink in, but I will try my hardest in this class! Good luck everyone!
Blog Post #3 Language, Meaning, Interpretation.
Based on the article written by Jonathan Culler which is “Language, Meaning. Interpretation”. Culler sited several pointers on how to define the meaning of language. In my opinion, language has various disciplines, meaning of the word, the use of words and utterances, differences, and contrast in some situations. Meanwhile study, reveals that there are at least three different dimensions or levels of meaning: The meaning word, of an utterance, and of a text. The meaning of the words contributes to the meaning of an utterance which is an act by a speaker. Finally, the text which here represents, an unknown speaker making difficult utterances its potential to affect readers the general meaning is based on the difference.
The one that struck me the most is the Saussure theory of language which says, a language is a system of differences. What makes each element of a language what it is, what gives its identity, is the contrast between it and other elements within the system of the language as sited in an analogy. Here, it didn’t emphasize the physical features of the train but instead focus on the difference in the time schedule of arrivals and departures from the different points of origin and destinations.
I am therefore enlightened by the author’s definition of language. “Each language is a system of concepts as well as forms: a system of conventional signs that organizes the world. (Culler.59). Likewise, I believe it will be a great help for me as I venture with my studies regarding literature.
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.
