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28 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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always already
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When character seems to possess certain characteristics independent of any circumstances which could explain them
-Character inhabits certain function – it’s their role to exhibit those characteristics -No identifiable first instance of characteristic -Presdisposition (no cause and effect); questions of psychological motivation and of cause become irrelevant |
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ambivalence
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State of undecidability; wavering between multiple ideas/feelings
-Implies strong contrast between two ideas/feelings -Contradictory feelings or images are present -Can’t decide between two meanings because they appear equally valid and present -differs from ambiguity in that all meanings are specifiable |
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aphasia
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Linguistic disability that is the inability to find the right word or understand the words that are being said, use a different word instead
-Insight into the way that we order our work, when we see a system breakdown we can learn a lot from it, capacity for making combinations or for choosing the right word -Divided into a similarity disorder and a continguity disorder |
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Adriane's thread
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The fact that a clue inevitably replicates the shape of its puzzle
-Interpretation inevitably retraces/reproduces the structure of the object it tries to interpret -Every critique or criticism risks repeating the error of the critiqued |
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binary opposition
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Pairs of opposing concepts that exclude one another
-Implicit hierarchy (example: life is better than death) because individual values one over the other -Multiple analogies align -Susceptible to inversion |
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cinematic apparatus
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Cinematic technique of shot-reverse-shot that is used to create the point of view of a character
-Divides characters into active and passive roles -Persuades us to identify with the character's desires |
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essentialism
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A belief or attitude that character traits (values) are intrinsic (natural and central)
-To believe that certain behaviors are trans-cultural or trans-historical -Meaning cannot be variable or subjective |
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histoire
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Order in which events take place in fictional world
-Beginning more open-ended than recit because it is difficult to tell exactly when/where events began -First order |
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logocentrism
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Placing of spoken word at center
-Implies speech superior to writing -Implies original superior to copy -Mediation leads to corruption of original -Paradox: Every copy can become new original |
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male gaze
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Narrative strategy, structure, or perspective that concentrates on men looking at women
-What is implied in stare is sexualization, objectification, appropriation, and domination/control of women -About compelling an audience to share or to adopt controlling or objectifying gaze |
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mediation
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Communication and representation that is based upon and takes place in concrete medium (speech, writing, images)
-Inevitably distorts/corrupts original meaning/intention of thing getting mediated -Fundamental problem: Always comes after the fact, implicitly opposed to immediacy |
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mediated desire
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Desire is always mediated through someone else’s desire (not prompted by something in object of desire, but rather by seeing object through someone else’s eyes)
-Object not intrinsically desirable; urge to imitate desire arises from jealousy -Triangular structure – individual feeling desire, object of desire, and person the individual desiring wants to be like -Usually the two doing the desiring are in more of an engagement with each other than with the object of desire- imitation to become person |
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metaphor
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Figure of speech that constructs analogy between two things or ideas; the analogy is conveyed through metaphorical word in place of another word
-Gives texture to novel; figure of speech that is literally not true, but implicitly refers to a property of the meptahor -Purely conceptual leap from one thing to another -Shaping device; produces certain effect/image |
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metonymy
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Replacement of a word by another word connected/habitually related/contiguous to it (close proximity)
-Contrasted with metaphor because metaphor is replacing the word with something associated with it -Example: Using “crown” to represent king or using “badge” to represent police force -Type of similarity disorder |
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narrative desire
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Desire to find out how things are going to work out
-Don’t want story to end too soon; want to prolong end of story -Process of detection involves curiosity, desire, and pleasure -Reader's desire but characters serve as a proxy for reader's desire |
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oral culture
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Community or culture that is centered on things that are not images or writing like conversation, story-telling, and music
-Preserves, transmits cultural memory and experience -Opposed to official culture -Dialogic/dynamic (always changing) |
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paternal interdiction
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Literally that which the father says you cannot do; more generally, prohibition issued by strong authority figure
-Functions to redirect desire -Paradox: Often incites that desire |
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plain style
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Stripped down vocabulary and syntax
-Lack of ornament -No intrinsic effect -Not necessarily clearer |
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primal scene
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Fantasy of witnessing one’s own conception
-Ultimately a fantasy (cannot be realized) -Almost always functions as traumatic memory; necessarily retrospective |
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print culture
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Printed documents/public sphere (printed documents organize and consolidate public sphere)
-Literacy=>political (literacy is a political matter) -Print=power (printed material has significance beyond its content) -Teaching=>initiation (teaching is an initiation into a culture) |
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signifier
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Word has two parts: a signifier and a signified
-Signifier=purely material -Signifier=pure form, without meaning/striped or detached from any meaning |
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spectrum of male homosocial relations
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Entire range of intense emotions/feelings men have about each other
-Runs from homoerotic to male-bonding to homophobic -Women excluded from spectrum, but men use women as conduits to “exchange fluids” (example: men giving Lucy blood in Dracula) -Nature of relationship is not as important as intensity of connection |
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visual culture
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Organized around production/consumption of images
-Privileges images over other kinds of media: images=commodities (images become commodities) -Consumption≠real power(consumption is offered as a compensation to real power/satisfaction) -Production=power(person who is control of producing the images) |
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Zeno's paradox
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Paradoxical problem of taking two objects where you cut the distance between them in half and the two objects will technically never touch because the distance between them never becomes zero
-Feedback loop becomes progressively shorter, tighter, more condense -Can never completely bridge gap between experience and its representation (between original event and its mediation) -Implication: Narrative is always and inevitably retrospective (there is no such thing as writing things down in the moment that they occur) |
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cultural relativism
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Belief that properties and characteristics of something are determined by their cultural context, not by nature; meaning is subjective; when do we say that something is essentially immoral and when do we say that it is just a cultural difference (ex. stoning)
1. Not intrinsic or natural 2. Culture, context, circumstance 3. Subjective |
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récit
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Order in which events are related/communicated to reader
-Has very specific starting point (first page of novel) -Second order |
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diachronic relations
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Unfold in time based on location in sequence; have specific place in time; mutually exclusive
-Temporal dimensions -Meaning depends on sequence -Histoire and recit are subdivisions |
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synchronic relations
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Relationships of simultaneity; amongst things which exist at the same time (or in the same plane); static dimension
-Meaning does not depend on sequence -Themes, imagery, metaphors -Example: Vader’s mask means the same thing at the beginning and end of story |
