Assignment 5

KEYWORDS

• literature
• theory
• interpretation
• close reading
• language
• history
• gender
• physchoanalysis
• deconstructive reading

SUMMERY

In the article”Tackling Textuality – With Theory” published in The Use of English (volume 52, Number 1, Autumn 2000) Peter Barry claims that there is a paradox in the new ’A’ level Specifications. Teachers should not just be aware of developing the students reading, the teachers should also show them how to interpret the texts with help of “close reading”.

In his article Barry describes the traditional literary training of ‘close reading’ and shows us why he thinks this sometimes is not enough to really understand a text. And if you do not understand a text, how can you then develop your reading?

Barry explains the traditional literary training with ten operations we do during ‘close reading’:
• We look for some overall structure pattern
• We look fro similarity beneath apparent dissimilarity or vice versa.
• We distinguish between overt and covert content
• We distinguish between meaning and significance
• We think in terms of genre or literary type – how the literary genre affects the content
• We frequently read the literal as metaphorical
• We read the surfaces of the work accurately
• We look for patterns in literary works accurately
• We identify stages and phases within a literary work
• We read in linguistic period aware of semantic changes

Barry claims that these ten steps are really important and that you, as reader and as a critic, can not exclude them. These steps are essential in all interpretation. But also, according to Barry they are not enough. He explains that the 10 steps describes the contents of the text but does not look outwards and according to the author this is necessary to really understand a text. “This necessary looking outwards from the text is why we have and why we need literary theory.”(Peter Barry)

The author declares that there are four other aspects/theories that are important for understanding the literature and in his article he describes all four theories one by one:
• the relationship between literature and history
• the relationship between literature and language
• the relationship between literature and gender
• the relationship between literature and psychoanalysis

To explain how these theories work, Bryan uses Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73. He explains the first and second theory the relationship between literature and history, and the second one, the relationship between literature and language with showing us how that the language in the poem tells us about the history present when Shakespeare wrote it and how the words can be used to say something else than what you first think as a reader.

In the third theory, the relationship between literature and gender, the author describes what signs of gender there can be in a text. Can we as readers decide if it is written by a man or a woman? Barry explains that society has made up some “gendered social norms” and that sometimes helps us to sort out if it is written by a man or a woman.

The author continues with explaining how writers, and in this case William Shakespeare, sometimes hides things by put it out in the open. This theory he calls the relationship between literature and psychoanalysis.

But the author does not stop there, after presenting his four aspects he continues with introducing a change of article two the relationship between literature and language. That article has things in common with what Barry refers to as “deconstructive reading”. Deconstructive reading has according to the author one foot in the traditional close reading as well as one in literature and language and is also important to have in mind when you should analyze a text.

To explain deconstructive reading Barry refers to definitions made of different writers but also offers us his own definition: “Deconstructive reading is like stroking the cat the wrong way”. To deconstruct a text you should not just look for what it wants to tell us, you should look for contradictions, linguistics quirks, aporia, shifts or breaks and absences or omissions. To his help Barry uses the poem Ored (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961) to show how it can be done.

Finally Barry sum up his article with the reasons why you should use literature theory when it makes your reading so much more complicated. He claims that it is important if you really want to understand a text, and not at least… it is fun!

Linda Cooper