Assignment 6

(1) Paraphrases of important points
Original
A third area for theory is that of the relationship between literature and gender. In the case of this poem, the gender issue is pretty stark. We might ask the question, what are the signs in this poem that it is written by a man rather than a woman? (This is very often a good question to ask). One sign, I think, is the fact that as a ploy in the seduction process the speaker draws attention to his relatively advanced age. Could a woman speaker in a love poem associate herself with images of late autumn, sunset, approaching death, and dying embers? It seems unlikely.
Paraphrase
Barry considers the connection between literature and gender as a third area in terms of theory. He claims the gender issue in this particular poem is quite stark and looks for signs indicating that the writer is a man rather than a woman. According to Barry a female writer would not draw attention to her age and further argues that they would not likely compare themselves with images of late autumn, sunset, approaching death and dying embers.

Original
(2) We look for similarity beneath apparent dissimilarity, or vice-versa.
The two couples may be presented at first as the opposites of each other, but a close reading shows that what at first seemed true is actually untrue. For instance, one couple may be presented as very materialistic and the other as highly idealistic. But in the end events show the idealist to be unyielding and inflexible, while the materialist is seen to be generous of heart and forgiving of human frailty. So they are opposites, but not in the way that first appeared.
Paraphrase
In Barry's second element of interpretation he claims that a close reading shows that things are not always what they appear to be when you first read a literary work. He exemplifies this with two couples; one may be introduced as very materialistic and the other couple as highly idealistic. As the story unfolds the idealist couple turns out to be unyielding and stubborn, whereas the materialistic couple are seen to be generous and forgiving.

(2) Words, phrases or brief passages that I think should be quoted directly
Reading literature well is often a matter of picking up these counter-currents, those points where language undermines itself, runs against its own grain, carries along its own opposite in its own slipstream.

Deconstructive reading is a kind of dowsing tool which is designed to pick up that counter-current which runs beneath the surface.

Linguistic quirks, structural patterns, deconstructive reading, close reading, reading the text against itself.

(3) Review
The more I read the more annoyed I became. The article started out well with a clear outline of what the reader was to expect, followed by the check list; interesting and not hard to understand. The rest was more of a daze. Written by an academician for academicians alike; drawn out expoundings that are certainly interesting but not written interestingly enough to keep me alert for that amount of text. The text was too dense and there were too much literary jargon, it made me lose track several times and I had to go back and read it again. The wrapping up was a total anti climax, a sudden and abrupt end, perhaps leaving the reader more confused than enlightened that I presume was the actual purpose. To me it seemed like a third or fourth draft that needed to be slightly more revised. He made an interesting subject yawn- producing and I am certain he is a writer skilled enough and able to write more captivating.
The structure was good as far as the ten elements were concerned, the rest of the article I thought went from one thing to another with no clear point for each paragraph. In conclusion I did not think the article was very convincing, due to a lot of unnecessary twaddle.

In the article Tackling Textuality - Without Theory from The Use of English (Volume 52, Number 1, Autumn 2000), Peter Barry accounts for ten principal methods on how we take on and interpret a literary text. These are ten essential features that will always be required when interpreting a text. With this checklist Barry makes us aware of what we do when we decipher a literary work when 'close reading' without the use of literary theory. However, these methods are never sufficient as they mainly look 'inwards into the text itself' when we have to look out from the text too. The need to look out from the text is the reason we have and need literary theory and to complement his checklist he elucidates four aspects of the connection between literature and the outside world which are history, language, gender and psychoanalysis. Barry uses Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 to illustrate these different approaches.
Barry's principal methods explains for example how we look for a general 'structural pattern' in a literal text to enable an interpretation, how a close reading reveals that things are not always what they appear to be and how we identify the difference between meaning and significance. Furthermore we consider what influence the genre of the work has on its contents and we usually read the literal as metaphorical.
Barry uses the relationship between literature and language to illustrate 'deconstructive reading'. He argues that this particular relationship allows us to think about deconstructive reading which as well as it has been a strong instrument in literary theory it is also closely connected to our usual intensive close reading. One of Terry Eagleton's definitions of deconstructive reading is 'reading the text against itself'. The close reader's ambition is to demonstrate a 'unity of purpose within the text' and with all its intentions directed towards that, the text then appears to be in harmony with itself. The deconstructor on the other hand wants to demonstrate the text's disharmony and looks for elements of for exampel contradictions, absences or omissions. Barry illustrates deconstructive reading with the poem 'Oread'.
In conlclusion of Tackling Textuality - Without Theory, he claims that literary theory can many times be an obstacle which leads to more problems than it is able to solve but the enjoyment and the understanding when unfolding a text is rewarding enough to justify the process.

Keywords:
literary theory, close reading, deconstructive reading, interpretation and meaning