Hermeneutic Desire and Critical Rewriting : Narrative Interpretation in the Wake of Poststructuralism

Starting from a comprehensive examination of current post-structuralist and socio-semiotic theories of narrative, this book formulates an interactive model of literary interpretation and pedagogy emphasizing process, critical self-awareness and strategies of re-reading/re-writing. A literary pedagogy premised on the concept of "rewriting", the author argues, will enable readers to experience the process of narrative and critical construction creatively. The earlier chapters explore the implications of recent theories (reader-oriented, deconstructive, feminist and socio-semiotic) that bank on an interactive, recreative paradigm of criticism. The latter part of the book argues the advantages of a literary pedagogy that encourages critical reformulation and a focus on the reader's own articulatory strategies, thereby bridging critical theory and practice, production and reception of texts. This theoretical and methodological argument is organized around a cluster of post-structuralist readings of Henry James and two experimental seminars that have all foregrounded, though from different angles, the essential affinity between James' narrative and critical practice, and a literary pedagogy emphasizing re-writing (refiguration). Front Matter....Pages i-viii An ‘Intimate Commerce with Figures’: On Rereading/Rewriting Narratives....Pages 1-41 The Figures Readers Make: Interpretive Plots in Reader-Oriented Criticism....Pages 42-81 The Figure of Catachresis and the Plot of Unreadability in Deconstruction....Pages 82-120 Difficult Figuration: Feminine Signifiers in Male Texts....Pages 121-161 Figures of Exchange: A Poststructuralist Semiotics of Reading....Pages 162-200 ‘Limp’ vs. ‘Acute’ Criticism: An Interpretive Community Refigures James....Pages 201-231 Stringing ‘The Figure in the Carpet’: Seven Readings, Seven Critical Plots....Pages 232-264 Rereading, Rewriting, Revisioning: Poststructuralist Interpretation and Literary Pedagogy....Pages 265-297 Back Matter....Pages 298-357 Starting From A Comprehensive Examination Of Current Poststructuralist And Sociosemiotic Theories Of Narrative, This Book Formulates An Interactive Model Of Literary Interpretation And Pedagogy Emphasising Process, Critical Self-awareness And Strategies Of Rereading/rewriting. A Literary Pedagogy Premised On The Concept Of 'rewriting', The Author Argues, Will Enable Readers To Experience The Process Of Narrative And Critical Construction Creatively.