THE POSSIBILITY OF THE EXISTENCE OF LITERATURE FROM A POSTSTRUCTURALIST PERSPECTIVE: A METACRITICAL EXAMINATION OF TEXTUALITY THROUGH CATEGORICAL DECONSTRUCTION.

摘要

The purpose of the dissertation was to examine the status of literature via the perceptions of contemporary critical theorists. Central to this dissertation, although not directly discussed within it, are the major works of Jacques Derrida. His philosophical position regarding the nature of language and meaning is accepted as the correct position and as such is used to demonstrate problems in such critics as Gerald Graff, Walter Michaels, Stanley Fish, and Jonathan Culler. From a poststructuralist perception a distinct body of material called literature is always and only a political illusion, an illusion whose purpose is the control of people and power.; The dissertation is organized around the examination of three key concepts, the subject and object distinction, interpretation, and hierarchies. Current theories from sub-atomic physics are brought in to argue that a distinct subject and a distinct object do not exist except as linguistic conveniences. Without the availability of a distinct subject and object most critics have trouble deciding who is interpreting what. The concept of interpretation is discussed from Stanley Fish's sociological position in order to point out some of the weakness inherent in text-oriented criticism. Finally, the notions of theoretical criticism, practical criticism, and literature are brought into question because they tend to be items in a power-conscious hierarchy.