Jonathan Culler's "In Pursuit of Signs" (Book Note)

 

In "The Pursuit of Signs," Culler undertakes the challenging task of rendering modern critical trends accessible to scholars and students who may not have Todorov, Barthes, and Derrida as their bedtime reading. Comprising eleven chapters, some of which are adapted or derived from earlier versions published in various journals and essay collections dating back to 1976, the book offers a selection of interrelated topics within a broader semiotic framework of literature, rather than a linear exposition of a singular theoretical concern. Culler's central contention revolves around the idea that contemporary literary criticism should shift its primary focus from the interpretation and reinterpretation of significant literary works to the analysis of how readers perceive and construct meaning from literary texts.

 

The first chapter, "Beyond Interpretation," introduces this thesis and contends that the New Criticism and prominent theorists like Northrop Frye, Stanley Fish, and Harold Bloom are inadvertently ensnared in an ultimate concern with the interpretative function of critical discourse. In the ensuing chapter, "In Pursuit of Signs," Culler provides a clear and engaging overview of how seminal figures such as Saussure, Peirce, Levi-Strauss, Derrida, and others have grappled with the complexities of meaning and the logic of signification.

 

Moving into Part Two (Chapters 3-6), Culler delves into literary semiotics as a theory of reading. He delves into various subjects, including literary competence, Normal Holland's investigations into reader response, Hans Robert Jauss's examinations of the horizons of expectations influencing the reception of literary works in different epochs, the foundation for genre distinctions, Riffaterre's interpretation-oriented Semiotics of Poetry, presupposition, intertextuality, and Stanley Fish's purportedly ambivalent stance on elucidating the procedures and conventions of reading. Culler underscores the significance of semiotics not as a means of interpreting individual works, but as a framework for elucidating the "operations and conventions which constitute the institutions of literature" (p. 127).

 

The third section of "The Pursuit of Signs" delves into the deconstructive implications of semiotic theory. In a chapter focused on apostrophe, Culler argues that this ostensibly "awkward" rhetorical device, by overtly proclaiming its artificiality, becomes an indication of "the incalculable force of a poetic event" (p. 152). Rhetorical figures constitute the subject of another chapter, which examines, among other aspects, the figurative significance of metonymy and metaphor, highlighting the privileged status of the latter. In Chapter 8, the issue of mimesis is scrutinized from a deconstructive perspective, particularly in relation to Abrams' work "The Mirror and the Lamp." Another essay addresses the intricate relationship between story and discourse, event and meaning within narrative works.

Much like many contemporary theorists, Culler displays a keen awareness of ambiguity, the inherent indeterminacy of meaning, and the boundaries of expressive systems. Notably, he refrains from exploiting this indeterminacy in his expository writing, showcasing his enduring belief in the language's capacity for denotation. In "The Pursuit of Signs," Culler is primarily occupied with posing questions and pinpointing challenges, rather than offering definitive answers. His focus lies in delineating the objectives and scope of literary semiotics, rather than delineating its methodologies.

 

Culler's work is invaluable precisely because it illuminates a somewhat nebulous domain. Demonstrating a superb command of the subject matter, he adeptly synthesizes diverse viewpoints, identifies disparities among major theoretical frameworks, elucidates his own critical preferences, suggests refinements to existing models, and provides valuable bibliographic insights (though a comprehensive bibliography akin to that found in "Structuralist Poetics" would have been a notable addition). His writing maintains a consistent level of clarity throughout.

 

If any critique may be leveled, it might be for Culler's fervent critique of critics, even modernist ones, who do not dismiss "the assumption that interpretation is the purpose of criticism" (p. 14). For instance, is it truly productive to lament Northrop Frye's "failure to question interpretation as a goal" (p. 8) in the "Anatomy of Criticism"? By so emphatically asserting that the primary function of literary criticism lies in describing the processes that afford literary works their meaning, Culler may inadvertently overlook the merits of interpretative criticism that engages with questions of significance, not merely meaning, in literary works. Nonetheless, even if one disagrees with Culler on this matter, his thorough and insightful analysis of contemporary critical issues remains highly beneficial.