In
literary theory, textuality comprises all of the attributes that distinguish the communicative content under analysis as an object of study. It is associated with
structuralism and
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
.
Explanation
Textuality is not just about the written word; it also comprises the placement of the words and the reader’s interpretation. There is not a set formula to describe a text’s textuality; it is not a simple procedure. This summary is true even though the interpretation that a reader develops from that text may decide the identity and the definitive meanings of that text. Textuality, as a
literary theory, is that which constitutes a text in a particular way. The text is an undecidable (there is an inexistence of an effective or "strict" method of writing or structure).
Aspects
Being textual includes innumerable elements and aspects. Each and every form of text and text in that form of literature embraces and consists of its own individual and personal characteristics; these may include its personality, the individuality of that personality, the popularity, and so on. The textualities of the text define its characteristics. However, the characteristics are also closely associated with the structure of the text (
Structuralism). Peter Barry's discussion of textuality notes that "its essence is the belief that things cannot be understood in isolation – they have to be seen in the context of the larger structures they are part of".
[Barry, Peter, ''Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory'', 3rd ed., Manchester University Press, 2002. ] To form an opinion, criticise, or completely interpret a text one would first have to read the complete literary work as a whole; this enables the reader to make supported judgements on the personality and individuality of the text. The text is always hiding something. Although the reading may define and the interpretation may decide, the text does not define or decide. The text rests as operationally and fundamentally indecidable. Roger Webster frequently uses metaphors of ‘weaving’, ‘tissue’, ‘texture’, ‘strands’, and ‘filiation’ when talking about the structure of texts. He also agrees that "instead, the text is a surface over which the reader can range in any number of ways that the text permits."
Textuality is a practice. Through a text’s textuality, it makes itself mean, makes itself be, and makes itself come about in a particular way. Through its textuality, the text relinquishes its status as identity and affirms its condition as pure difference. In indifference, the text "dedefines" itself, etches itself in a texture or network of meaning, which is not limited to the text itself. Barry describes this as a "structuralist approach to literature, there is a constant movement away from the interpretation of the individual literary work and a parallel drive towards understanding the larger,
abstract structure
An abstract structure is an abstraction that might be of the geometric spaces or a set structure, or a hypostatic abstraction that is defined by a set of mathematical theorems and laws, properties and relationships in a way that is logically if no ...
s which contain them".
A different view of textuality has been put forward by
Rein Raud
Rein Raud (born 21 December 1961) is an Estonian scholar and author.
Early life
He was born in 1961 in the family of Eno Raud and Aino Pervik, both children's authors. He is the eldest of three children. His younger brother Mihkel Raud is a ...
, according to whom textualities are "ordered sets of texts of different status that are related to each other and come with pre-arranged modes of interpretation". A textuality consists of base-texts, "those that define a textual community and form a part of the necessary cultural competence of its members", result-texts, "bids that have just been accepted and entered circulation, as well as those that have done so some time ago but are still being considered recent arrivals by their recipients", mediated by an operational memory, "a shared (and internally contradictory) mental space of the cultural community and its various subgroups where texts are produced and processed", which contains different kinds of knowledge, standards and codes shared to different extent by the carriers of the culture. According to Raud, this model is complementary to a model of cultural practices, in which the production, distribution and transmission of meaning is regarded in the context of individual participation and activity, while a textuality is necessarily shared and perceived by its carriers to be an objective, albeit constructed, reality.
Concept of "text"
The word ''text'' arose within structuralism as a replacement for the older idea in
literary criticism of the "work", which is always complete and deliberately authored.
[Greene, Roland, ed.-in-chief, ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', Princeton University Press, 2012. ] A text must necessarily be thought of as incomplete, indeed as missing something crucial that provides the mechanics of understanding. The text is always partially hidden; one word for the hidden part in literary theory is the ''
subtext
Subtext is any content of a creative work, which is not announced explicitly (by characters or author), but is implicit, or becomes something understood by the audience. Subtext has been used historically to imply controversial subjects without ...
''.
The concept of the text in structuralism requires a relatively simple relationship between language and writing.
Jacques Derrida, a leading post-structuralist, questions this relationship, aiming his critique primarily at
Ferdinand de Saussure, who, he claims, does not recognize in the relationship between speech and writing "more than a ''narrow'' and ''derivative'' function".
[Derrida, Jacques, ''De la Grammatologie'', translated as ''Of Grammatology'' by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,1976 corrected edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. ] For Derrida, this approach requires putting too much emphasis on speech:
:"Saussure confronts the system of the spoken language with the system of phonetic (and even alphabetic) writing as though with the telos (purpose) of writing."
Summation
Barry says that "one of structuralism's characteristic views is the notion that language doesn’t just reflect or record the world: rather, it shapes it, so that ''how'' we see is ''what'' we see".
This is closely linked to "
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
" which is in fact, closely linked also to textuality. And Barry believes that the "post-structuralist maintains that the consequences of this belief are that we enter a universe of radical uncertainty…".
Derrida further states:
:"This
teleology
Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...
leads to the interpretation of all eruptions of the nonphonetic within writing as transitory crises and accidents of passage, and it is right to consider this teleology to be a Western
ethnocentrism, a premathematical
primitivism
Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...
, and a
preformalist intuitionism
In the philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism, or neointuitionism (opposed to preintuitionism), is an approach where mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of f ...
."
In short, textuality is an individual and uncertain skill that will always be read and interpreted in texts in different ways, by different people, and at different times. It is a literary tool that can never be defined like an exact science and that will always be influenced by the writer's life, such as, their upbringing, education, culture, age, religion, gender, and multiple other persuading factors.
In the media
Textuality can be seen, heard, read, and interacted with.
[{{cite book
, last = Hayles
, first = Katherine
, title = Writing Machines
, publisher = MIT Press
, location = Cambridge, Massachusetts
, year = 2002
, isbn = 0-262-58215-5 ]
Each of the three forms of ''
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
'' –
oral
The word oral may refer to:
Relating to the mouth
* Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid
**Oral administration of medicines
** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or or ...
,
print, and
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
– has a different form of textuality that reflects the way the sensory modalities are stimulated.
* An example of textuality in the oral medium is the sound itself.
* An example of textuality in the print medium is the physicality of a book.
* An example of textuality in the electronic medium is the interactivity of a website, or visual of a specific television show.
See also
*
Text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including:
**Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred
**Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...
*
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text, either through deliberate compositional strategies such as quotation, allusion, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche or parody, Gerard Genette (1997) ''Paratexts'p.18/ref>Hal ...
*
Hypertextuality
References
Terms in literary theory
Structuralism