Week+9+Discussion+Questions

//Rod K. Taylor// //Zak Aldukhayil// //Ziyad Alkhalifah// //Muhammad Alatrash// //Alex Wang//

Structure:

1."The Anglo-American New Critics of the 1930s and 1940s used 'structure' often interchangeably with the term 'form' to describe essential properties of the artwork and ultimately the essence of the aesthetic experience." Then, do you believe there is a difference between the word "structure" and the word "form," or are these words interchangeable like New Critics contended? 2. On page 29: "Saussure argues that language, rather than being a mere tool for expressing ideas, precedes all thought." Two people look at each other and without saying a word, they understand each other; They laugh or nod. Is language the only way of communication? Can one think and understand the other without using language? 3. How can you explain the idea that literary structure can better help us in understanding a particular culture's language?? 4. In 1980 Stanley Fish wrote an influential book, Is There a Text in This Class? He argues that “a text is not a text without a reader and a context.” My question is: Does structuralism take into account the “reader” role? Can we say that the reader is the third dimension in the text-meaning relationship/structure?

5. According to Barthes, “on the one hand, 'structure' seems to require that man understand himself only according to his particular historical moment and its unique relation to the past. This is generally defined as historicism. On the other hand, 'structure' seems to rely on the postulation of a certain historical necessity by which man would transform an alien world of experience into his own property.” Shall we give privilege to either the historical moment and relation to the past or historical necessity when we undertake a structuralist activity?

Writing:


 * 1) The text states, " One of the ways in which colonial powers succeeded in imposing their domination over other peoples was precisely through writing. European civilization functioned with great effectiveness by remote control." Do you believe writing serves a similar function in today's American society, or do you think that we are all astute readers impervious to "powers of domination" that were exercised and employed in yesteryear?
 * 2) Derrida’s concept of Difference rejects the binary system of the relationship between signifier/signified. It gives the relationship two dimensions “deferment” and “difference.” Do you think that the relationship between the signifier/signified is a process of negotiation rather that a static. Does “deferment” support the mechanism of interpretation and “The Death of The Author” theory?
 * 3) On page 48: "Derrida claims the importance of writing has been "repressed" by the dominant culture of the western tradition... The "other" can always learn to read the mechanisms of his or her own oppression." Why are dominant countries, such as the USA and England trying hard to teach as many people as possible the language of the dominant power; English?
 * 4) Johnson elaborated much on the fact that writing in the past were used as powerful source in dominating and shaping cultures, Do you believe that this role of writing still exists in our world today? or it was just in the past?
 * 5) On Page 48, Barbara Johnson argues, “what enslaves is not writing per se but control of writing, and writing as control.” Do you think Johnson’s argument and illustration is more like a matter of literacy or the control of literacy rather than writing and the control of writing? Given the increasing rate of literacy, do you think this approach would still be effective? Or has the restraint shifted to the spread of practical knowledge, say how to protect one’s own right?