Post-Structuralism and Roland Barthes Quiz

Post-Structuralism and Literary Text

• Post-Structuralism suggests that readers find meaning in a literary text through their own interpretation and experience, rather than relying on the author's intentions.

Roland Barthes' Concepts

• Roland Barthes introduced the concepts of 'readerly' and 'writerly' texts, where 'readerly' texts are those that are easily interpretable and 'writerly' texts are those that require active reader participation.
• In a 'readerly' text, the reader's role is passive, as the author has already fixed the meaning of the text.
• In a 'writerly' text, the reader's role is active, as they must work to create their own meaning.

Roland Barthes' Contributions

• Roland Barthes is regarded as a prominent literary critic and philosopher.
• He introduced the concept of 'S/Z' which divides a text into multiple fragments, and discussed the idea of 'The Death of the Author' in his essay, which suggests that the author's intentions are not the ultimate authority on the meaning of a text.

Post-Structuralist Approach

• The central idea of Post-Structuralism is that meaning is not fixed or inherent in a literary text, but rather it is created by the reader through their own interpretation and experience.
• Post-Structuralism rejects the idea that literary texts have a fixed, universal meaning, and instead emphasizes the role of the reader in creating meaning.

Key Ideas

• Post-Structuralism emphasizes the importance of the reader's role in interpreting a literary text, and rejects the idea that the author's intentions are the sole authority on the meaning of a text.
• The concept of 'writerly' texts emphasizes the active role of the reader in creating meaning, and suggests that meaning is not fixed or inherent in a text.