"Literary Theory Week" continues.
In my English 2600 class taught by Professor Albrecht-Crane at UVU, we began by reading the short story "The Metamorphosis"
by Franz Kafka. Then we applied every theory we discussed (one a week)
to that short story. Here is the third paper I had to write on the approach known
as post-structuralism:
In
contrast to the more traditional liberal humanist way of interpreting a novel
which focuses on universal themes and morals seemingly implicit in the plot
itself, the theory of post-structuralism—rather like structuralism—looks beyond
plot and hones in on the actual structure of the language itself. Unlike structuralism, however,
post-structuralism is skeptical in finding any meaning at all, taking the ideas
of structuralism one step further in revealing that if words are arbitrary,
meaning itself must be also. In an
attempt to further examine the post-structuralist approach, I will first
discuss some of its basic concepts as explained by Peter Barry and then apply post-structuralism
to the short story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka.
Barry, in
the third edition of his book Beginning
Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, begins his exploration
of post-structuralism by first comparing it to structuralism because the former
springs directly from the latter.
Structuralism, according to Barry, is more linguistically based while
post-structuralism comes from philosophy—meaning that it embraces skepticism
more fully (60-61). Barry also reflects
that while structuralists write in a more abstract and scientific way,
post-structuralists fixate on etymology and write more emotively (61). Post-structuralists, as Barry has noticed,
are plagued with linguistic anxiety over the fact that meaning is just as
arbitrary as our verbal constructs (62).
Essentially, post-structuralism follows through with the idea set forth
by structuralists to such an extent that any attempt at finding “meaning” is
thrown out the window.
Barry
continues his explanation of post-structuralism by mentioning the philosopher
Derrida and sharing some of his ideas. As Barry relays, Derrida talks about a
decentered universe because there are no “fixed points” or absolutes;
everything is relative (65). With this
belief, as Derrida explains, a post-structuralist will deconstruct the text and
find the unconscious, hidden meanings in the etymology of words (Barry
68). Barry gives us an example involving
the word “guest” which makes us think of the related word “host” which shares
the same root as the word “hostility”—showing that the word “guest” can imply a
certain “hostility” (68). These sorts of
contradictions or paradoxes are, as Barry states, the aim of a
post-structuralist analysis (70). In
effect, post-structuralism uses these contradictions as proof that everything
we know is completely relative and based on convention.
If a
post-structuralist were to be reading Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” they
would say the story exposes the concepts of “human” and “animal” to be
arbitrary based on the contradiction in the sentence found on page 36: “Was he an animal, that music could move him
so?” In traditional language
conventions, we associate the word “animal” with words like “uncivilized” and
“lowly,” yet here the text is clearly favoring “animal” by putting it in the
place where “human” would be more logical.
Aren’t humans the civilized, superior ones that appreciate music and
culture? Yet here the text reverses the
polarity of the common opposites “human” and “animal,” thus destabilizing the
perceived certainty of the concepts in our language.
Another
example of this destabilization in the text can be found on page 15 when the
character of the father—a human—is said to be “hissing like a wild man.” The verb “hissing” is one that conventionally
makes reference to the sound certain reptiles or insects might make, not one
typically associated with the word “father.”
A post-structuralist would use this as proof that all meaning is
arbitrary. There is no real “father” or “human”
or “animal.” All of these ideas exist
and function solely within our own social and linguistic constructions.
So
while structuralism also acknowledged that words are primarily unrelated to the
real world, post-structuralism, as you can see here, takes that fundamental
belief to its seemingly logical conclusion:
if the language we use to construct our world is arbitrary, so meaning
must be as well. All “meaning” we think
we have found is completely man-made through our own language conventions and
there is absolutely no certainty of anything.
Works Cited
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory.
3rd Ed. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2009. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. and ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: W.W.
Norton, 1996. Print.
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