ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Which literary theorist argues that “there is nothing outside the text”?
A
T.S. Eliot
B
Jacques Lacan
C
Jacques Derrida
D
Stanley Fish
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -For Derrida, ‘there is nothing outside of the text’. In the original French, Derrida wrote: ‘Il n’y a pas de hors-texte’ [There is no outside-text]. Language is a constant movement of differences and everything acquires the instability and ambiguity inherent in language (Callinicos 2004).

Detailed explanation-2: -In one of his first books, Of Grammatology published in 1967 (in French), Derrida famously puts it this way: ” There is nothing outside the text” [Il n’y a pas de hors-texte].

Detailed explanation-3: -Derrida contends that the opposition between speech and writing is a manifestation of the “logocentrism” of Western culture-i.e., the general assumption that there is a realm of “truth” existing prior to and independent of its representation by linguistic signs.

Detailed explanation-4: -The main point of Derrida’s theory of deconstruction is to show that the meaning of a work is unstable and could have multiple or alternative meanings, so the meaning could easily be the center as it could be marginal.

There is 1 question to complete.