CHAPTER 6 - Readerly and Writerly Text
CHAPTER 6 - Readerly and Writerly Text
CHAPTER 6 - Readerly and Writerly Text
Objectives:
Readerly Text
- Readerly texts, by contrast, are anything but readerly; they are manifestations of The
Book. They do not locate the reader as a site of the production of meaning, but only as
the receiver of a fixed, pre-determined, reading. They are thus products rather than
productions and thus form the dominant mode of literature under capital.
Writerly Text
- By contrast, writerly texts reveal those elements that the readerly attempts to conceal.
The reader, now in a position of control, takes an active role in the construction of
meaning. The stable meaning, or metanarratives, of readerly texts is replaced by a
proliferation of meanings and a disregard of narrative structure. These is a multiplicity of
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cultural and other ideological indicators (codes) for a readers to uncover. What Barthes
describes as "ourselves writing" is a self-conscious expression aware of the
discrepancy between artifice and reality. The Writerly text destabilized the reader's
expectations. The reader approaches the text from an external position of subjectivity.
By turning the reader into the writer, writerly texts defy the commercialization and
commoditization of literature.
Behind these distinctions lies Barthes' own aesthetic and political projects, the
championing of those texts which he sees as usefully challenging--often through the
method of self-reflexivity--traditional literary conventions such as the omniscient
narrator. For Barthes, the readerly text, like the commodity, disguises its status as a
fiction, as a literary product, and presents itself as a transparent window onto "reality."
The writerly text, however, self-consciously acknowledges its artifice by calling attention
to the various rhetorical techniques which produce the illusion of realism. In accord with
his proclamation of The Death of the Author, Barthes insists, "the goal of literary work
(of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the
text" (S/Z 4).
Barthes identifies the writerly text as a dominant mode in modern mythological culture in
which forms of representation seek to continually blur the division between the real and
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the artificial. He proposes that the Ideal text blurs the distinction between the reader and
writer: - The network are many and interact, without any one of them being able to
surpass the rest; this text is a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no
beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can
be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as
the eye can reach, they are indeterminable... - The systems of meaning can take over
this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity
of language (S/Z 5)
Hypertext
Intertextuality
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Examples of Intertextuality
However, intertextuality is not always intentional and can be utilized inadvertently this
term was developed by the post structuralists Julia Kristeva 1960's, and since then it's
been widely accepted by postmodern literary critics and theoreticians.
Julia Kristeva
- Contribution to the notion of intertextuality is immense. She not only coined the word
intertextuality but substantially stressed the importance of the potential dynamics that
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Basically, when writers borrow from previous texts, their work acquires layers of
meaning. In addition, when a text is read in the light of another text, all the assumptions
and effect of the other text given a new meaning and influence the way of interpreting
the original text. It serves a subtheme, and reminds us the double narratives in
allegories.
Types of Intertextuality
Obligatory Intertextuality
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Some media texts can directly refer to others, such as 'remakes' of films, extra-diegetic
references to the media and society, etc. The interpretation of these references is
hugely influenced by the audiences' prior knowledge of the second text. By using
something familiar to the audience they may create both potential good associations
and new meanings.
Audience Pleasures
Optional Intertextuality
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Accidental intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text, cultural
practice or a personal experience even though the writer has no intention of making an
intertextual reference and it is completely upon the reader’s own prior knowledge that
these connections are made.
For example, J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series shares many similarities with J. R. R.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. They both apply the use of an aging wizard mentor
(Proffesor Dumbledore and Gandalf) and a key friendship group is formed to assist the
protagonist (an innocent young boy) on their arduous quest to defeat a powerful wizard
and to destroy a powerful being (Keller,2013)
Accidental Intertextuality
- Accidental Intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text,
cultural practice or a personal experience, without there being any tangible anchor point
within the original text (John Fitzsimmons).
Examples: When reading Herman Melville's Mint Dick, a reader may use his or her
prior experiences to make a connection between the size of the whale and the size of
the ship.
Reference:
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introliterature/chapter/introduction-to-critical-
theory/
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