WK9-DQ


 * Writing**

1. According to Barthes, “work” and “text” are two sides of the same coin. They differ in the way they view literature and written words. He claims that “Great Works” are limited to genre, author and/or linearity and the reader is a consumer rather than a producer. On the other hand, “Textuality” is more of open-ended and heterogeneous, and there is more freedom for the reader to produce his own meaning. (on page 40)

- To what extent are you satisfied with Barthes’s Marxist-Psychoanalytic approach in viewing and interpreting Literature?

- If you buy it, then could you give a simple example of what could be a Great Work or text or both? How does this critical equation work?

- How does it relate/connect to what we’ve previously learnt about the role of author/authorship, agency and reader/readership?

2. Barbara Johnson writes: "What enslaves is not writing perse but control of writing and writing as control" (48). For centuries, writing has been used as a tool to serve certain people's goals; for example, colonizers used writing to control ownership of land, men used writing to control women, and whites used writing to control blacks. In terms of liberty and suppression, how do you describe the use of writing in relation to authority in the present time?


 * Structure**

1. According to Rowe, "For both myth critics and structuralists, literary or artistic 'structures' might be used to understand the boundaries of a particular culture's language" (page 34).

- How can we reconcile the argument with Rowe’s later argument about the ‘failure’ of structuralism to influence the studies of literature and the arts?

- How can we relate this argument to last week discussion about the relationship between culture and literature?

2. It is stated on page 30 that “in practice, structural anthropologists focus on the relation of nature and culture. In purely theoretical terms, the relation of nature to culture was binary and a nominal tautology: culture’s ‘other’ is nature; nature’s ‘other’ is culture.” Can you think of some contexts where nature and culture would be inseparable, resulting in making the task of defining “structure” a formidable one?