One idea from this chapter that striked me as interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning is meaning, intention, and context. Culler says that can be based on the author’s intention, the context, the text itself, or the reader, and that because of this meaning is elusive (p.65). I think the most interesting claim Culler makes is that literature is more about what the reader interprets that what the author thought of when writing because literature and linguistics focus on structure more than they do meaning. This, in my opinion, is what can make a piece of literature timeless. Whether the author was thinking of feminism, post-colonial structure, or “the heterosexual matrix,” the themes should be clear to the reader no matter what time period the piece is read in.

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