Choose one of the following topics:
Compose a Structuralist analysis of “London,” by William Blake (p. 136-137). Use the appropriate vocabulary suggested for this critical theory. You must use excerpts from the primary text and secondary sources to support your claims.
Compose a Deconstructuralist analysis of “Ethics,” by Linda Pastan (p. 138-139). Use the appropriate vocabulary suggested for this critical theory. You must use excerpts from the primary text and secondary sources to support your claims.
At the beginning of Chapter 5, Lynn (2011) discusses the concepts ofsemiotics and binary oppositions. Simply stated,semiotics is the study of language. By alluding to binary oppositions in this context, Lynn is essentially referring to deconstruction, an approach to literary analysis that focuses on how authors use the imperfect tool of language to create a specific meaning.
Chapter 5 of Texts and Contexts provides a clear overview of Jacques Derrida’s concept of deconstruction on pages 107 and 108. Lynn does a great job crafting an accessible introduction to what is often thought of as an abstruse and difficult literary theory. To supplement our course text’s overview, note that language can become highly problematic when dealing with topics of gender, class, and ethnicity. Language is imperfect because certain words, particularly those that denote gender, class, and ethnicity, have accrued certain associations based on prevailing ideologies (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and hegemonies (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
Thus, authors can use words in a way that either perpetuates or tries to break problematic binary oppositions. For instance, in American culture, there is a clear hierarchal dichotomy between the terms masculine and feminine, with most members of the culture regarding the former term as being synonymous with heroism, virility, and self-sustainable independence. On the other hand, its binary opposite term, “feminine” connotes the opposite for many people, unfortunately. In their very essence, the words “masculine” and “feminine” denote the qualities of two different genders. Over time, though, they have taken on different meanings. As Leitch et al. (2001) state in relation to Derrida’s critique of language, “Existing languages constantly try, and constantly fail, to present the ‘truth’ or ‘Being’ that is assumed to be behind or beyond language” (p. 1815).
This sort of binary distinction exists, too, with ideas of class (poor/rich) and ethnicity (white/non-white). Now, please keep in mind that we’re not here to perpetuate these distinctions. In fact, our job as literary critics is to distinguish textual examples that do or do not disseminate racist, sexist, or classist stereotypes. This way, we can help select which works appear in future canons.
To supplement this explanation of semiotics, here’s a fun video from the popular television series The Big Bang Theory. In it, Penny has to explain to Sheldon that a “tie” sometimes means much more than just an article of clothing:
This is a hilarious example of using semiotics, but can you think of any words that mean much more than the object that they signify? How do these different associations problematize the use of that word in certain contexts and discourses?
Let’s consider an example of a text that may or may notperpetuate sexist stereotypes and the sort of problematic binary oppositions alluded to above. I don’t want to spoil any of this week’s readings, so I’d like to discuss a popular film that has garnered a lot of criticism for its portrayal of women: Thelma and Louise(1991). Keep in mind that film provides a convenient corollary to all of the literary texts we encounter in ENG 438, especially since most poems tell a “story,” too.
When this film was first released, many critics lauded it as a feminist (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. narrative: two women abandon their problematic relationships with men to hit the road for independence and adventure. When Thelma is raped, Louise shoots her male perpetrator and the duo is then chased to their deaths by a male police force. Clearly, the narrative subverts the popular notion of masculinity as demonstrated by a male outlaw hero; we have two very strong female protagonists who refuse to buckle down to patriarchal norms. Many audience members would view this as a narrative that tries to flip the hierarchal binary of masculinity and femininity by redefining the latter.
However, some critics contend just the opposite. In particular, the great feminist critic bell hooks (1996) has this to say about the ending of Thelma and Louise: “That’s the tragedy of [this film]: it doesn’t offer empowerment by the end, it’s made a feminist joke, it’s made rebellion a joke, and in the traditional patriarchal manner, it’s made death the punishment” (p. 118). Hooks is referring to the film’s ending, where the two title characters resort to driving off of a cliff to avoid getting arrested. Because they can only gain freedom through death, hooks contends that the narrative’s message just reinforces patriarchal gender constructs.
After considering these points about Thelma and Louise, do you think that bell hooks would consider the ending of a drama such as A Doll House (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.problematic? Does Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” promote patriarchal values, too? If you haven’t encountered any of these particular texts that are frequently used in English courses, can you think of any other poems, dramas, or stories that can be deconstructed in terms of their gender representations?
This is all to say that you should not be intimidated by structuralist or deconstruction theories. Think in terms of the illustration below: the critic on the left is practicing New Criticism by articulating how a given literary text presents a specific message through its various parts.
On the other hand, the critic on the right, while first analyzing a text’s meaning much as anyone using New Criticism might do, will then move on to explain how the various “hidden” messages inherent in a literary text must be questioned. Indeed, many students new to the term “deconstruction” think that the word is synonymous with “destruction.” This is not the case, though. As Lynn points out:
deconstruction is not so much a way to obliterate the meaning of a text, as it is a way to multiply meaning. Deconstruction thus encourages us to resist a complacent acceptance of anything and to question our positions and statements in a particularly rigorous way, even reading texts against themselves. (p. 107-8)
As the picture and the examples above illustrate, then, using the method of deconstruction creates multiple readings of a given interpretation; with this playful method of literary criticism, each interpretation that is reached using New Criticism can be revealed to have hidden assumptions and biases.
One who uses the method of deconstruction to break down a literary text’s meaning thinks that there is no final say in what that text really means. Readers and critics are entitled to their own opinions. However, since we are literary critics, we have to be sure to support our ideas with secondary sources and close analysis of the texts. You will be doing just this in your Week 3 Assignment.
I hope that these examples help you in completing your Week 3 work. Now, let’s have fun analyzing the various literary texts we’re reading this week!
References
Cain, W.E., Laurie, A.F., Johnson, B.E., McGowan, J., Williams, J.J. (2001). The Norton
anthology of theory and criticism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
hooks, bell. (1996). Reel to reel: Race, sex, and class at the movies. New York, NY: Routledge.
SemioticsInc (August 6, 2011). Semiotics of the tie. Retrieved June 29th, 2020,
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeefWS8YrDw (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Lynn. S. (2011). Texts and contexts: Writing about literature with critical theory. Boston, MA:
Pearson Education.
withoutbleeding (August 3, 2007). Thelma & Louise: Ending scene. Retrieved June 29th, 2020,
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z88U915uq8 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
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