Meaning of literary text
Meaning of literary text is:- Intended by the author (author uses cultural conventions, which are hard to read)
- Created and contained in the text itself (produced by formal properties of the text, i.e. grammar, vocabulary, images created in the text; it is considered that an educated reader will inevitably come to essentially the same interpretation, however it is almost impossible to know whether the same interpretations have been arrived at by different readers)
- Created by the reader (exists in the readers; response of the readers’ reception of the text. This is inescapable because meaning exists only if it means something to somebody).
Essential issues:
1) Meaning is social (depends on cultural conventions and exists as shared meaning)
2) Meaning is contextual (if you change the context, it will change the meaning)
3) The question of meaning is the matter of reader’s competence
4) Meaning requires a negotiation between cultural meanings across time, gender, class.
