Tag Archives: literary theory

Eco, The Name of the Rose, and the limits of language

Presented today, as a brief lesson in elementary Saussurian structuralism, and post-structuralism, is an excerpt from Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel, Il Nome Della Rosa (tr: The Name of The Rose, 1983). Any semiotician or Eco-fan will be familiar with the text, and with the excerpt, as it is one of any number of pages from [...]

Understanding the question of meaning in postmodernism

This is an addendum to a post I began last week on the enthusiasm inherent in postmodernism, as explicated by Linda Hutcheon in her Poetics of Postmodernism (1988). In this, another long excerpt, Hutcheon explains what “meaning” in a postmodern world (that is, in our systems, our philosophies, our politics, our art forms, etc) [...]

An enthusiasm for postmodernism

There is a lesson at hand today, on the nature of post-modernism and its place in society today. It is not so much a lecture as it is a reminder of some important words written by Linda Hutcheon in 1988. [Recent talk on pomo has kick-started my summer studies into high gear, it [...]

A postmodern generation and a roll call.

Reading and responding to a recent blog post on post-modernism at Tales From The Reading Room has got me thinking about the current state of post-modern criticism within our own culture. Although some of PoMo’s “big names” such as Jameson and Hutcheon are still alive and well and kicking the theoretical can around the [...]

Excerpts: W.G. Sebald and Theodor Adorno

W.G. Sebald is known for his unique narrative style, and his untimely death. The German emigré to the UK died in a car accident in December, 2001, not long after the publication of his last novel, Austerlitz. The academic-turned-writer wrote in his original German tongue, but found fame in several languages, largely on the [...]

Scraps of Hex / Andre Gide

I found this file on my desktop the other day. It was the beginning of an entry I had started a long time ago, I think in November, but dropped, as it was time to head home and prepare some dinner. It is nonetheless an interesting little note about a book I will [...]