首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Meaning in Literature In reading literary works, we are concerned with the ’meaning’ of one literary piece or another. Howev
Meaning in Literature In reading literary works, we are concerned with the ’meaning’ of one literary piece or another. Howev
admin
2019-03-26
53
问题
Meaning in Literature
In reading literary works, we are concerned with the ’meaning’ of one literary piece or another. However, finding out what something really means is a difficult issue.
There are three ways to tackle meaning in literature.
I. Meaning is what is intended by【T1】______.【T1】______
Apart from reading an author’s work in question, readers need to
1)read【T2】______ by the same author:【T2】______
2)get familiar with【T3】______ at the time:【T3】______
3)get to know【T4】______ and symbols of the time.【T4】______
II. Meaning exists ’in’ the text itself.
1)some people’s view: meaning is produced by the formal properties
of the text like【T5】______, etc. 【T5】______
2)speaker’s view: meaning is created by both conventions of
meaning and【T6】______.【T6】______
Therefore, agreement on meaning could be created by【T7】______【T7】______
and conventions of usage. But different time periods and
different【T8】______ perspectives could lead to different interpretations【T8】______
of meaning in a text.
III. Meaning is created by【T9】______.【T9】______
1)meaning is【T10】______:【T10】______
2)meaning is【T11】______:【T11】______
3)meaning requires【T12】______:【T12】______
- practicing【T13】______【T13】______
- practicing【T14】______【T14】______
- background research in【T15】______, etc.【T15】______
【T9】
Good morning. In today’s lecture we shall discuss what meaning is in literary works. When we read novels, poems, etc. we invariably ask ourselves a question, that is "What does the writer mean here?" In other words, we are interested in finding out the meaning. But meaning is a difficult issue in literature. How do we know what a work of literature is supposed to mean? Or what its real meaning is? I’d like to discuss three ways to explain what meaning is. Number One: meaning is what is intended by the author. Number Two: meaning is created by and contained in the text itself and Number Three: meaning is created by the reader.
Now let’s take a look at the first approach, that is, meaning is what is intended by the author. Does a work of literature mean what the author intended to mean? And if so, how can we tell? If all the evidence we have is the text itself and nothing else, we can only guess what ideas the author had according to our understanding of literature and the world. In order to have a better idea of what one particular author means in one of his works, I’d suggest that you do the following. First, go to the library and read other works by the same author. Second, get to know something about what sort of meanings seemed to be common in literary works in that particular tradition and at that time. In other words, we need to find out what the literary trends were in those days. And last, get to know what were the cultural values and symbols of the time. I guess you can understand the author’s meaning much more clearly after you do the related background research.
Now let’s move on to the second approach to meaning, that is, meaning is created by and contained in the text itself. Does the meaning exist in the text? Some scholars argue that the formal properties of the text, like grammar, diction, uses of image and so on and so forth, contain and produce the meaning, so that any educated or competent reader will inevitably come to more or less the same interpretation as any other. As far as I am concerned, the meaning is not only to be found in the literary traditions and grammatical conventions of meaning but also in the cultural codes which have been handed down from generation to generation. So when we and other readers including the author as well are said to come up with similar interpretations, that kind of agreement could be created by common traditions and conventions of usage, practice and interpretation. In other words, we have some kind of shared basis for the same interpretation. But that does not mean that readers agree on the meaning all the time. In different time periods with different cultural perspectives, including class, belief and worldview, readers, I mean, competent readers, can arrive at different interpretations of texts. So meaning in the text is determined by how readers see it. It is not contained in the text in a fixed way.
Now the third approach to meaning, that is, meaning is created by the reader. Does the meaning then exist in the reader’s response? In a sense, this is inescapable. Meaning exists only insofar as it means to someone. And literary works are written in order to evoke sets of responses in the reader. This leads us to consider three essential issues. The first is, meaning is social, that is, language and conventions work only as shared meaning. And our way of viewing the world can exist only as shared or sharable. Similarly when we read a text, we are participating in social or cultural meaning, so response to a piece of literary work is not merely an individual thing, but is part of culture and history. Second, meaning is contextual. If you change the context, you often change the meaning. And last, meaning requires reader competency. Texts constructed as literature have their own ways of expressions or sometimes we say styles. And the more we know of them, the more we can understand the text Consequently, there is in regard to the question of meaning the matter of reader competency as it is called the experience and knowledge of comprehending literary texts. Your professors might insist that you practice and improve competency in reading and they might also insist that you interpret meaning in the context of the whole work. But you may have to learn other competencies, too. For instance, in reading Mulk Rai Anand’s The Untouchables, you might have to learn what the social structure of India was like at that time, what traditions of writing were in practice in India in the early 1930s, what political cultural and personal influences Mulk Rai Anand came under when constructing the imaginative world of this short novel.
OK, you may see that this idea that meaning requires competency in reading, in fact, brings us back to the historically situated understandings of an author and his works, as we mentioned earlier in this lecture: to different conventions and ways of reading and writing and to the point that meaning requires a negotiation between cultural meanings across time, culture, class etc. As readers you have in fact acquired a good deal of competency already, but you should acquire more. The essential point of this lecture is that meaning in literature is a phenomenon that is not easily located, that meaning is historical, social and derived from the traditions of reading and thinking and understanding of the world that you are educated about. Thank you for your attention.
选项
答案
the reader
解析
录音原文中提到:“现在要说研究意义的第三种方法,就是认为读者创造意义。”
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/3cEK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ThefirstmentionofslaveryinthestatutesoftheEnglishcoloniesofNorthAmericadoesnotoccuruntilafter1660—somefor
ItisinterestingtoreflectforamomentuponthedifferencesintheareasofmoralfeelingandstandardsinthepeoplesofJa
Toacomparativeeducationalistmanyquestionsabouttheselectionandtrainingofdoctorsandlawyersindifferentcountries
Predicatingthefutureisariskybusinessforascientist.Itissafetosay,thattheglobalAIDsepidemicwillgetmuchwors
Noclear-cutdistinctioncanbedrawnbetweenprofessionalsandamateursinscience:exceptionscannotbefoundtoanyrule.【S1
Aknowledgeofseverallanguagesisessentialtoothermajors’studybecausewithoutthemonecanreadbooksonlyintranslation
Inanagewhereglobalizationisthetrend,learningaforeignlanguagebecomesessential.Becauseofglobalization,citizenso
Dopupilsinschoollearntoreadtheirmothertongueeffectively?Yesandno.Upatthefifthandsixthgrade,reading,onthe
Dopupilsinschoollearntoreadtheirmothertongueeffectively?Yesandno.Upatthefifthandsixthgrade,reading,onthe
A、Thelinguisticpartofcomplaining.B、Theculturalbehaviorofbeingforthright.C、Takingaproductbacktoastore.D、Underst
随机试题
下列可引起淋巴细胞绝对值增多的疾病是( )
A.防疫药品、普查普治用药品、预防用生物制品出现的不良反应群体或个体病例B.上市5年以上的药品C.上市5年内的药品和列为国家重点监测的药品D.对严重、罕见或新的不良反应E.军队医疗预防保健机构发生的药品不良反应
劳动防护用品生产企业所生产的特种劳动防护用品,必须取得特种劳动防护用品()。
【背景资料】某机电安装公司承担北方某城市小区供热管网工程施工,开工前,项目经理进行了全面的质量策划,并指令专业工程师编制质量控制程序。工程按期完工,由于建设单位配套设施尚不具备条件,虽已到供暖期,没能进行试运行。由于寒潮突然袭击,使当地气温骤降,随后检查
某木制品公司(小规模纳税人)在2012年10月生产高档筷子1000箱,每箱售价800元;生产一次性竹筷500箱,每箱售价390元;生产一次性木筷1500箱,每箱售价290元;另生产未经打磨的一次性木筷子500箱,每箱售价250元。本月的产品全部销售,上述售
个人住房贷款中采用抵押加阶段性保证时,开发商需要与商业银行签订()。
咨询过程中最核心、最重要的实质阶段是()阶段。
王某将其去世时留下的部分字画赠与当地博物馆,赠与合同中约定该字画只能用于收藏陈列,不得转让。但博物馆和接受王某的捐赠后不久,就将部分字画赠与了古董字画研究专家赵某。下列选项正确的是()
有一类加密类型常用于数据完整性检验和身份验证,例如计算机系统中的口令就是利用【 】算法加密的。
Folktoysarethosewhosedesignshavepasseddownthroughthegenerations,madebyhandandnotinfactories.【C1】______manufact
最新回复
(
0
)