V6 6F?¥ The Pursuit of Signs Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction Jonathan Culler Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York© 1981 Jonathan Culler All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations 2, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any for ‘writing from the publ Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850, First published 1981 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1983. ‘Third printing, Comell Paperbacks, 1988. International Standard Book Number (cloth) 0-8014-1417-2 International Standard Book Numtber (paper) 0-8014-9224-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-70539 he United States of Amerien idlines for Book Longevity of the Coun Library Resources Library PN a% Subee 34 Contents Preface Acknowledgments Part One 1 Beyond Interpretation 2 In Pursuit of Signs Part Two 3 Semiotics as.a Theory of Reading 4 Riffaterre and the Semiotics of Poetry 5 Presupposition and Intertextuality 6 Stanley Fish and the Righting of the Reader Part Three 7 Apostrophe 8 The Mirror Stage 9 Story and Discourse in the Analysis of Narrative 10 The Turns of Metaphor 11 Literary Theory in the Graduate Program References Index 2 100 ng 135 155 169 188 210 27 2393 Semiotics as a Theory of Reading The fact that people engaged in the study of literature are willing, to read works of criticism tells us something important about the nature of our discipline. Few people, one imagines, take up a critical article because it is the most pleasant or entertaining way to spend an hour; they do so, they would say, because they hope to hear worthwhile arguments and proposals, Our assumptions that significant things will be said in critical writings may be an expectation more frequently defeated than fulfilled, but its presence, indeed its extraordinary persistence in the face of defeat, suggests that we see literary criticism as a discipline that aims at knowledge. Of course, it may be difficult to explain how our discipline does move toward knowledge. Ever since literary studies turned from erudition to interpretation it has been easy to question the notion of a cumulative discipline. Acts of interpretation do not neces- sarily seem to bring us closer to a goal such as a more accurate understanding of all the major works of European literature Indeed, the cynic might say that criticism does not move toward better interpretations and fuller understanding so much as toward what Schoenberg achieved in his Erwartung: a chromatic plenitude, a playing of al possible notes in all possible registers, a saturation of musical space. ‘One strategy popular in these circumstances is to legislate against the proliferation of interpretations by proposing a theory declaring that each work has meaning and that the critic's quest for knowledge is an attempt to discover that meaning. If the ”