“The meaning of a work is not what the author had in mind at some point, nor is it simply a property of the text or the experience of a reader. Meaning is an inescapable notion because it is not something simple or simply determined. It is simultaneously an experience of a subject and a property of a text. It is both what we understand and what in the text we try to understand.”
Quote by Jonathan Culler
Work
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
This book serves as an accessible introduction to the fundamental theories and methodologies that shape the study of literature. It examines various theoretical frameworks and their implications for understanding literary works. more
Author
Jonathan Culler
Limited information is available about Jonathan Culler, who was born on October 1, 1944. His professional category is currently unknown. more
You May Also Like
“Meaning is context bound, but context is boundless”
Source: On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism
“It is a flat'ning Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.”
Source: Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Man Behind The Lyrics (Illustrated Edition): Autobiographical Works (Memoirs, Complete Letters, Literary Introspection, Thoughts and Notes on Poetry); Including Extensive Biographies and Studies on S. T. Coleridge
“An idea, in the highest sense of that word, cannot be conveyed but by a symbol.”
Source: Biographia Literaria, Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
Source: Coleridge's Aids to reflection: with the author's last corrections
Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
Source: Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge: In Two Volumes
“A book is a machine to think with.”
Source: Principles of Literary Criticism
“If one reads too quickly or too slowly, one understands nothing.”
“Metaphors are much more tenacious than facts.”
Source: Allegories of Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust