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
2018-05-24
16
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://jikaoti.com/ti/rwTMFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Negativestressiswhatmostofusthinkofwhenwethinkofstress.Andnegativestressoccurslogicallyenoughinsituationst
Alow-contextcultureisoneinwhichthemessage,theeventortheactionis【T1】______,havingmeaningontoitself,regardless
MeaninginLiteratureInreadingliteraryworks,weareconcernedwiththe’meaning’ofoneliterarypieceoranother.Howev
MeaninginLiteratureInreadingliteraryworks,weareconcernedwiththe’meaning’ofoneliterarypieceoranother.Howev
MeaninginLiteratureInreadingliteraryworks,weareconcernedwiththe’meaning’ofoneliterarypieceoranother.Howev
Atschoolandatwork,Ihavenoticedthatpeoplehavedifferentkindsofworkhabits.Somepeoplearecollaborators,wholiket
A、Becauseshewantstobesureofhercareerpaths.B、Becauseshewantstoswitchherjobtoanotherfield.C、Becauseherdepart
Whatdoyouneedtodoinordertounderstandthelecture?NowtherearefourthingsthatI’mgoingtotalkabout.Thefirstthi
A、Toparticipateintheshows.B、Togiveadvicetopeople.C、Towritebooks.D、Toguidegirls’life.C本题设题点在采访开篇介绍处。根据句(1)可知,此次采
A、Itissatisfying.B、Itisnotessential.C、Itistoomuch.D、Itisbarelyenough.D本题考查重要细节。根据句(7—1)、句(7—2)和句(7—3)可知,人们每天至少要摄取
随机试题
含浆汁、淀粉或糖分多的药材,为便于干燥,通常须
A.情感淡漠、倒错、不协调,无故发笑B.情绪低落,思维迟缓,动作行为减少,自我贬低,自责自罪等C.带有焦虑成分的抑郁症状,常起伏不定,且可找到心理、生理学上的解释D.情感欣快、不稳、幼稚,甚至出现情绪失禁、病理性激情与强制性哭笑E.无故出现紧张、担
A.急性黄疸型肝炎B.急性无黄疸型肝炎C.急性重型肝炎D.慢性迁延性肝炎E.慢性活动性肝炎扑翼样震颤见于
进行现金管理的目的在于()。
我国国家标准规定:全脂乳中非脂乳固体含量应大于()
企业培训()的根本作用在于为培训活动提供一种制度性框架和依据,使培训沿着法制化、规范化轨道运行。
2009年,某省国民经济企稳回升,民生状况不断改善,社会保持和谐稳定,农林牧渔业全面增长,农业增加值1883.4亿元,比上年增长2.7%;林业增加值71.3亿元,比上年增长9.8%;牧业增加值691.1亿元,比上年增长5.2%;渔业增加值459.8亿元,比
简述幼儿同伴交往的意义。
给定资料1.近年来,随着国家和地方政府对扶贫攻坚的政策扶持及资金投入力度越来越大,被曝光的涉及扶贫领域的腐败案例不断涌现,扶贫领域俨然已经成为腐败的“重灾区”。扶贫资金被人“惦记”,和其监管难有很大关系。从横向上看,扶贫资金来源过多,多头管理,
设非零n维列向量α,β正交且A=αβT.证明:A不可以相似对角化.
最新回复
(
0
)