Literary Meaning: From Phenomenology to Deconstruction
TL;DR: This article explored the various theories of reading which have informed post-war literary criticism, and showed that for all the fervour of current debate about new movements in criticism, all these different approaches share at root a common notion of literary meaning.
Abstract: This book is both a guide to, and interpretation of, the course of modern literary theory. Exploring the various theories of reading which have informed post--war literary criticism, it shows that for all the fervour of current debate about new movements in criticism, all these different approaches share at root a common notion of literary meaning.
Citations
More filters
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2009
Abstract: The present thesis is the first of its kind in attempting to produce a comprehensive systematic analysis and synthesis of the biblical, theological and hermeneutical aspects of the ongoing debate about the role of women in Adventist theology. While studies have investigated already the sociological aspects of the debate no study has yet systematised and investigated in depth the debate with special attention to hermeneutical matters. The thesis is divided into four chapters. After an Introduction which defines the basic elements of the study and provides a literature review, Chapter One provides a historical introduction into the topic of women's ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Particularly historical and ecclesial developments are reviewed from the perspective of the early Adventist situation and the modem context. Chapter Two and Chapter Three are two parallel chapters which analyse and synthesise opponents (Chapter Two) respectively proponents' (Chapter Three) biblical, theological and hermeneutical positions. The analysis in both chapters also specifically investigates the hermeneutical rationales of each side by examining their theories of biblical inspiration, interpretative method and functional aspects of their hermeneutics. The last chapter of the dissertation takes the hermeneutical conclusions from the previous two chapters and assesses them on a meta-hermeneutical level from the perspective of modem hermeneutical developments. The thesis ends with a summary and conclusion which summarises all the main findings of the study. Overall, the thesis not only systematises the ongoing ordination of women dispute but in addition provides an insight into the operation of the Adventist hermeneutical mindset by examining and assessing the theoretical bases on which Adventist hermeneutical thinking operates. This research therefore will be primarily valuable in the field of Adventist studies but non-Adventist scholarship intending to know more about Adventist theology and hermeneutics may also find the thesis helpful.
32 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The Ophelia of as mentioned in this paper explores the notion that, beneath the surface of many lives, there may be thoughts and events people are ashamed of and wish to keep hidden, and explores the effects of their concealment on a small group of characters whose identities and relationships are challenged by her revelations.
Abstract: This thesis comprises a novel written for a general readership and an accompanying essay, both of which explore secrets and lies, shame and guilt, and confession and forgiveness in relation to celebrity culture and literature.
The novel, ‘Ophelia’, explores the notion that, beneath the surface of many lives, there may be thoughts and events people are ashamed of and wish to keep hidden. The revelation of secrets can have both expected and unexpected consequences. The novel focuses on the experiences of a woman who creates different identities and lives vastly different lifestyles at different times. When exposed, she must confront her shame and loss and ask others for forgiveness. The novel depicts the effects of her concealment on a small group of characters whose identities and relationships are challenged by her revelations. It questions the role of ‘truth’ in relationships and why people lie, including to those they claim to love, and it asks whether love can exist alongside lies, and to what extent it is possible to know another person. In addition, it examines different modes of celebrity, the role of the media in exposing celebrity scandals, and audience expectation and ambivalence in response to public confession.
The essay discusses the genesis and development of ‘Ophelia’ together with critical literature relevant to its key themes—keeping secrets and telling lies; shame, confession and forgiveness; and celebrity culture, including the relationship of celebrity and fan and the role and impact of the media, especially during a scandal. The essay refers to contemporary and historical examples of celebrity scandal, fabrication and confession, including the stories of two stars from the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood.
I propose that characters in novels are not forgiven as readily as celebrities, and that cultural and sexual transgression by a female character often results in her isolation, death or both. Three novels were chosen as case studies: Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Each has a female protagonist who is or becomes a mother and who carries a burden of secrets and shame. The novels, set in different countries, published in different eras and representing different cultural contexts and expectations, nevertheless share an interest in shame as a potent form of control.
My review of selected literature and celebrity culture suggests that the act of confession is essential to an individual’s concept of self. Confession is fraught as ‘truth’ is hard to speak and to hear. Differences between guilt and shame affect the ability to confess and the likelihood of forgiveness. Guilt arises from a person’s acts, whereas shame concerns who a person is or considers themselves to be, which makes both confession and forgiveness more complex propositions. An important aspect of confession is that it links to the confessor’s desire to find or regain a place in society, although that society might also be revealed as prejudiced,…
30 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The ambiguity of Joseph's image is due mainly to readers' different (or even contradictory) evaluations of his actions as mentioned in this paper, and this ambiguity can be explained by the fact that the protagonist would repeat the enslavement of a whole nation on a grand scale.
Abstract: The ambiguity of Joseph's image is due mainly to readers' different (or even contradictory) evaluations of his actions. This thesis attempts to provide a portrayal of this character by scrutinising his speeches in order to expose the problematic nature of his claims to knowing God's intentions. Judah is forced by Joseph's test to choose slavery for the sake of his father's survival (44.33-34); the ironic reversal of his role as a victimiser to becoming a victim of his rationale to sell Joseph in order to save him (37.26-27) is unmistakable. Unwittingly, Joseph mistakes the rationale for a divine principle to explain his suffering and dreams of domination and subordination for the same purpose of survival (45.5-11). To complicate the matter further, his repeated pronouncements of the God-sent famine (45.25,28,32) portray God as the source of destruction and deliverance, the same role Judah played in his betrayal. His final declaration of divine good overriding human evil (50.20), intended to draw a radical distinction between God's intentions and those of his brothers, would make it harder for him to explain the remarkable similarity between God's actions and those of Judah. However, he is unaware of the anomaly his speeches yield due to his ignorance of Judah's excuse. This double blindness calls into doubt any certainty about the coalescence of perspectives of Joseph and the narrator. It is also Joseph's assertion of domination over Egypt (45.8-9) instead of over his brothers that exposes its link with his subsequent policy of enslavement of a whole nation (47.13-26). However benevolent his measures are, his ambiguous behaviour clearly derives from his belief in his right to subjugate others in order to save them. It is undoubtedly an ironic and tragic ending that the protagonist would repeat the enslavement (which he has suffered, abhorred and condemned as evil) on such a grand scale.
14 citations
Dissertation•
18 Feb 2019
TL;DR: This article investigated readers' perceptions of the understandability of three translations of the Qur'an and found that different stylistic choices of words have different effects on the way translated texts are perceived as understandable, and low frequency words were perceived as less understandable than high frequency words by the participants.
Abstract: The overarching aim of this thesis is to investigate readers’ perceptions of the understandability of three translations of the Qur’an. Despite a long debate among translation theorists as to whether translations should be word-for-word or sense-for-sense, it is generally recommended that translators stick closely to the letter of the original texts when translating sacred or canonical texts. However, the translated texts need to be understandable to the reader. Functional approaches (Reiss and Vermeer’s (1984) skopos theory) highlight this aspect of translation.
The present research study focuses on the extent to which translations of the Qur’an are perceived as understandable by different groups of readers (people from the UK, people from India and Jordan, Muslim, and non-Muslim). No previous study has identified exactly what makes the translated text understandable in an explicitly linguistic way. The thesis is original in focusing particularly on lexical selection and archaisms, and was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of this study, the three translations were compared and analysed. The comparison was based on the lexical stylistic choices made in the three translations of the Chapter of Joseph. In the second phase of this study, an essentially quantitative method was used. The study breaks new ground by taking a questionnaire approach, eliciting reactions from readers of the Qur’an and identifying the effects of different English lexical choices and archaisms on their understanding of the translations.
The following key research questions articulate the main purpose of this study: RQ1. To what extent does the stylistic variation in different English translations of a word in an Arabic verse affect the perceived understandability of the word and/or the translated text of the Qur’an?
RQ2. To what extent are archaic expressions, such as verily or behold preferred by different readers of English (people from the UK, people from India and Jordan, Muslim, and non-Muslim) in the translations of the Qur’an?
RQ3. Which of the different lexical styles – e.g. archaic, formal, literary, old-fashioned - associated with particular words contributes to a more positive perception of the understandability of the translated texts of the Qur’an?
RQ4. Are there differences in the perception of understandability across the four groups; people from the UK, India and Jordan, Muslims, and non-Muslims?
The main contributions to knowledge of this study are firstly, by adopting a reader-response questionnaire approach as a main method in translation studies to investigate the understandability of translated texts from a linguistic perspective; secondly this study contributes to knowledge by highlighting the skopos, i.e. the purpose of religious translations from the perspective of skopos theory. That is to say that religious translated texts need to be perceived as understandable by the target readers.
The findings of this study revealed that different stylistic choices of words have different effects on the way translated texts are perceived as understandable, and low-frequency words were perceived as less understandable than high-frequency words by the participants. It was also found out that the perceived understandability of low frequency words, words from different lexical styles, and archaic terms differs among different readers (people from the UK, people from India and Jordan, Muslim) and also that these different groups have different stylistic preferences.
Based on the study, reader-response theory and skopos theory can put forward a new perspective for religious translation, and provide a modern account around the language of religious translations. They can also inform the choice of words which contribute to a positive perception of understandability. These choices can be used as a reference for future religious translations (see section 5.3 and chapter 6).
8 citations