Jonathan Culler Literary Theory Paradigm

Jonathan Culler is an American literary theorist who has international impact. The dissertation regards his paradigms of literary theory as the object of study to elucidate Culler’s theoretical frame, namely, structuralist poetics, his elaboration on deconstructivism and theory, and the literary return, through a combination with the shifts of literary study from literary theory to theory, and then to post-theory. And it explores these paradigms’influence and significance for literary study in China.The dissertation includes the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion:The Introduction concentrates on Culler’s life, his academic process and the study on Culler at home and abroad, and the research ideas and the basic structure of this dissertation.Chapter One:Literature and Structuralism-Poetics Study. Culler’s structuralist poetics turns out to a positive combination between French Structrualism influenced by the analysis mode of structuralist linguistics and American New Criticism. As the theoretical origins are concerned, Culler learns form Saussure’s structuralist lingustics, French Structuralism represented by Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthe and American native linguistic resources to introduce European theories to America with his creativity. In view of his academic motivation, Culler initiates the structuralist poetics based on his systematic and further exploration on structuralist linguistics and French Structuralism with an aim to rectify a deviation from the limitation on singular text analysis of New Critics. In the respect of theoretical creativity, different from American native interpretation and European structuralism, Culler’s structuralist poetics aims to seek the mechanism of the production of meaning, and reveals the function and process of the production of meaning with readers’ literary capability and convention system. The notion of structuralist poetics suggests a clue during his theoretical study process.Chapter Two:Literature and Deconstruction-Theoretical Study. Culler did not deny the previous sturcturalist poetics while participating in the debates and spreading process of deconstructionism. On the Contrary, he thinks deconstructionism is the continuance and supplement of poetics. Culler’s discuss begins from the feminist reading, and presents the assimilation and deviation of deconstructionism in the United States. For Culler, deconstruction is the internal cause of postmodern interdisciplinarity, so he chooses to explore literary study in theory based on deconstruction. This period’s paradigm can be called deconstructionist theoretical paradigm. Then the problem on tendencies towards structuralism and deconstructionism in culture study which in Culler’s words is the practice of theory will be discussed. Deconstructionist theoretical paradigm is the continuance and development of Chapter One, on one hand innovating the linguistic mode of literary theory, and on the other hand, deviating the subject of literature which suggests a crisis in literary study.Chapter Three:The Literary in Theory-The Return to the Literary. Culler accepts David Simpson’s view and proposes "the literary in theory", namely theorizing literature, represented by his exploration on the literary in national imagine, the literary in poetic justice, and the literary in performative studies. His "the literary" is actually post-theoretical literary paradigm in which literature proves to be the paradigm for the production and shift of theory. Post-theoretical literary paradigm represents the rethinking and rectification on the relation between literature and theory by scholars in the circle of literary study in the1990s, providing a new approach for the future of literary study.Chapter Four:Misfires in the "Literariness" Debate and its Enlightment for the Study on Culler. The literariness debate in China was inspired by Culler’s views but came out misfires on his original topic, reception of his theoretical discourses and his orientation for lots of reasons. The dissertation tries to explain the "literariness" in the literariness debate is not Culler’s "the literary"(the theorizing literature in Chapter Three), but analogue to Miller’s "literarity", though this debate originated from Culler’s works.The Conclusion. The characteristics, influences and limitation of Culler’s paradigms of literary theory are introspected, and the future tendencies of western literary theory are explored based on Culler’s recent expressions.