Full Description
In his account of text and textual meaning, Pettersson demonstrates that a text as commonly conceived is not only a verbal structure but also a physical entity, two kinds of phenomena which do not in fact add up to a unitary object. He describes this current notion of text as convenient enough for many practical purposes, but inadequate in discussions of a theoretically more demanding nature. Having clearly demonstrated its intellectual drawbacks, he develops an alternative, boldly revisionary way of thinking about text and textual meaning. His careful argument is in challenging dialogue with assumptions about language-in-use to be found in a wide range of present-day literary theory, linguistics, philosophical aesthetics, and philosophy of language.
Contents
1. Series editor's preface; 2. List of figures; 3. Preface; 4. Introduction. A theory of text and textual meaning; 5. Part I. The theory explained; 6. Chapter 1. The ordinary conception of a text and the cluster conception; 7. Chapter 2. Exemplars of texts and complexes of signs; 8. Chapter 3. Textual meaning; 9. Chapter 4. A news story and a work of electronic literature; 10. Chapter 5. A poem: "Dickinson 591"; 11. Part II. The theory compared with other theories; 12. Chapter 6. The standard linguistic perspective on text and textual meaning; 13. Chapter 7. Analytic-aesthetic views of textual meaning; 14. Chapter 8. Text and textual meaning as conceived by standard literary theory; 15. Chapter 9. The idea that texts are unitary objects; 16. Conclusion. An informal summary; 17. References; 18. Index
