A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text

Qian Han

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

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A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text

Qian Han

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 12, Issue 1)

Received: 27 November 2023 Accepted: 23 December 2023 Published: 8 January 2024

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Abstract

We hope to describe and explain the origin of the concept of "text" in Europe, as well as its significant impact in China. The replacement of the concept of work by the concept of text is the most important conceptual event in literary theory discourse after World War II. The word “text,” common in Western languages, and “work” constitute a pair of interrelated concepts, the former referring to the objective, material dimension of literature, and the latter pointing to its subjective, value-based, and spiritual dimensions. This seemingly taken-for-granted opposition and hierarchical division was strongly challenged in the 1960s and 1970s: on the one hand, structuralist literary theory demanded the “scientificity” of literary research, and therefore put aside the "work", which was colored by subjective values, and shifted its focus to the study of the objective laws of the literary text. On the other hand, although the French theory after the rise of post-structuralism inherited the theoretical method of structuralism, it denied the pursuit of scientificity in literary research. Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida, among others, turn to the practice of the text, which has regained its value, except that the value of the text, contrary to the value of the work, manifests itself in the subversion of value itself. This is a paradox in itself: the value of the text is a subversion of value in the sense of an uninterrupted subversion of significance. The word “text” was translated into Chinese as wen ben from 1980s, and became a keyword in Chinese literary theory and critics. The introduction of this word produced some new conceptions of literature, but on the other hand it brought about some misunderstandings, since there is not the opposition of text and works in Chinese.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 12, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
Page(s)	1-7
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Text, Work, French Theory, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism

References

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[3]	Barthes, Roland, «De l’œuvre au texte», Revue d’esthétique, 3e trimestre 1971, repris dans Œuvres complètes, édition établie et présentée par Éric Marty, t. II, Paris, le Seuil, 1993, p. 42.
[4]	Barthes, Roland, le Plaisir du texte, Paris, le Seuil, 1973, repris dans Œuvres complètes, édition établie et présentée par Éric Marty, t. II, Paris, le Seuil, 1993, p. 1514.
[5]	Barthes, Roland, «De la Science à la littérature», in Times Literary Supplement, 28 septembre 1967, sous le titre «Science versus literary», repris dans Œuvres complètes, t. II, édition établie et présentée par Éric Marty, Paris, le Seuil, 1993, p433.
[6]	Barthes, Roland, «Sur S/Z et L’Empire des signes», entretien avec Raymond Bellour, "les lettres françaises, 20 mai 1970, repris dans Œuvres complètes, édition établie et présentée par Éric Marty, t. II, Paris, le Seuil, 1993, p. 1015.
[7]	Barthes, Roland, «(Théorie du) Texte», in Encyclopaedia Universalis, Paris, Universalis, dvd, 2014.
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[12]	Foucault, Michel, «La philosophie structuraliste permet de diagnostiquer ce qu'est “aujourd'hui”» (entretien avec G. Fellous), La Presse de Tunisie, 12 avril 1967, p. 3. Repris dans Dits et écrits, éd. Daniel Defert et François Ewald, Coll. Quarto, Paris, Gallimard, 1994, v. I, p. 612.
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[15]	Kristeva, Julia, «Le texte clos», in Sémiotiké, Recherche pour une sémanalyse (Extraits), Paris, Seuil, 1969, p. 113.
[16]	Meregalli, Franco, «The reception of literature», Revue of Comparative Literature, no2, 1980, p. 103.
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[21]	Huang, Xiyun, «Roland Barthes, three perspectives of amateurism», in Revue of Foreign Literature, no3, 2005. (黄晞耘: «罗兰•巴特：“业余主义”的三个内涵», 载于«外国文学评论», 2005年第3期.)
[22]	Qian, Han, The Conception of text in the French Theory in XXe Century, Beijing, P. U de Beijing, 2014, p. 30. (钱翰: «二十世纪法国先锋文学理论和批评的“文本”概念研究», 北京大学出版社, 2014年.)
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Han, Q. (2024). A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 12(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

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ACS Style

Han, Q. A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2024, 12(1), 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

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AMA Style

Han Q. A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. Int J Lit Arts. 2024;12(1):1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11,
  author = {Qian Han},
  title = {A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {12},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-7},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20241201.11},
  abstract = {We hope to describe and explain the origin of the concept of "text" in Europe, as well as its significant impact in China. The replacement of the concept of work by the concept of text is the most important conceptual event in literary theory discourse after World War II. The word “text,” common in Western languages, and “work” constitute a pair of interrelated concepts, the former referring to the objective, material dimension of literature, and the latter pointing to its subjective, value-based, and spiritual dimensions. This seemingly taken-for-granted opposition and hierarchical division was strongly challenged in the 1960s and 1970s: on the one hand, structuralist literary theory demanded the “scientificity” of literary research, and therefore put aside the "work", which was colored by subjective values, and shifted its focus to the study of the objective laws of the literary text. On the other hand, although the French theory after the rise of post-structuralism inherited the theoretical method of structuralism, it denied the pursuit of scientificity in literary research. Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida, among others, turn to the practice of the text, which has regained its value, except that the value of the text, contrary to the value of the work, manifests itself in the subversion of value itself. This is a paradox in itself: the value of the text is a subversion of value in the sense of an uninterrupted subversion of significance. The word “text” was translated into Chinese as wen ben from 1980s, and became a keyword in Chinese literary theory and critics. The introduction of this word produced some new conceptions of literature, but on the other hand it brought about some misunderstandings, since there is not the opposition of text and works in Chinese.
},
 year = {2024}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text
AU  - Qian Han
Y1  - 2024/01/08
PY  - 2024
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
AB  - We hope to describe and explain the origin of the concept of "text" in Europe, as well as its significant impact in China. The replacement of the concept of work by the concept of text is the most important conceptual event in literary theory discourse after World War II. The word “text,” common in Western languages, and “work” constitute a pair of interrelated concepts, the former referring to the objective, material dimension of literature, and the latter pointing to its subjective, value-based, and spiritual dimensions. This seemingly taken-for-granted opposition and hierarchical division was strongly challenged in the 1960s and 1970s: on the one hand, structuralist literary theory demanded the “scientificity” of literary research, and therefore put aside the "work", which was colored by subjective values, and shifted its focus to the study of the objective laws of the literary text. On the other hand, although the French theory after the rise of post-structuralism inherited the theoretical method of structuralism, it denied the pursuit of scientificity in literary research. Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida, among others, turn to the practice of the text, which has regained its value, except that the value of the text, contrary to the value of the work, manifests itself in the subversion of value itself. This is a paradox in itself: the value of the text is a subversion of value in the sense of an uninterrupted subversion of significance. The word “text” was translated into Chinese as wen ben from 1980s, and became a keyword in Chinese literary theory and critics. The introduction of this word produced some new conceptions of literature, but on the other hand it brought about some misunderstandings, since there is not the opposition of text and works in Chinese.

VL  - 12
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Qian Han

Department of French, School of Foreign Language and Literature, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Center for Literary Theory Studies, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

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APA Style

Han, Q. (2024). A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 12(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Han, Q. A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2024, 12(1), 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

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AMA Style

Han Q. A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text. Int J Lit Arts. 2024;12(1):1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11,
  author = {Qian Han},
  title = {A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {12},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-7},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20241201.11},
  abstract = {We hope to describe and explain the origin of the concept of "text" in Europe, as well as its significant impact in China. The replacement of the concept of work by the concept of text is the most important conceptual event in literary theory discourse after World War II. The word “text,” common in Western languages, and “work” constitute a pair of interrelated concepts, the former referring to the objective, material dimension of literature, and the latter pointing to its subjective, value-based, and spiritual dimensions. This seemingly taken-for-granted opposition and hierarchical division was strongly challenged in the 1960s and 1970s: on the one hand, structuralist literary theory demanded the “scientificity” of literary research, and therefore put aside the "work", which was colored by subjective values, and shifted its focus to the study of the objective laws of the literary text. On the other hand, although the French theory after the rise of post-structuralism inherited the theoretical method of structuralism, it denied the pursuit of scientificity in literary research. Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida, among others, turn to the practice of the text, which has regained its value, except that the value of the text, contrary to the value of the work, manifests itself in the subversion of value itself. This is a paradox in itself: the value of the text is a subversion of value in the sense of an uninterrupted subversion of significance. The word “text” was translated into Chinese as wen ben from 1980s, and became a keyword in Chinese literary theory and critics. The introduction of this word produced some new conceptions of literature, but on the other hand it brought about some misunderstandings, since there is not the opposition of text and works in Chinese.
},
 year = {2024}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Keyword in Western Literary Theory: Text
AU  - Qian Han
Y1  - 2024/01/08
PY  - 2024
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20241201.11
AB  - We hope to describe and explain the origin of the concept of "text" in Europe, as well as its significant impact in China. The replacement of the concept of work by the concept of text is the most important conceptual event in literary theory discourse after World War II. The word “text,” common in Western languages, and “work” constitute a pair of interrelated concepts, the former referring to the objective, material dimension of literature, and the latter pointing to its subjective, value-based, and spiritual dimensions. This seemingly taken-for-granted opposition and hierarchical division was strongly challenged in the 1960s and 1970s: on the one hand, structuralist literary theory demanded the “scientificity” of literary research, and therefore put aside the "work", which was colored by subjective values, and shifted its focus to the study of the objective laws of the literary text. On the other hand, although the French theory after the rise of post-structuralism inherited the theoretical method of structuralism, it denied the pursuit of scientificity in literary research. Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida, among others, turn to the practice of the text, which has regained its value, except that the value of the text, contrary to the value of the work, manifests itself in the subversion of value itself. This is a paradox in itself: the value of the text is a subversion of value in the sense of an uninterrupted subversion of significance. The word “text” was translated into Chinese as wen ben from 1980s, and became a keyword in Chinese literary theory and critics. The introduction of this word produced some new conceptions of literature, but on the other hand it brought about some misunderstandings, since there is not the opposition of text and works in Chinese.

VL  - 12
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download