For Wednesday: Read/Start Culler, Chapter 1: "What is Theory?"

A theoretical image: Magritte's The Treachery of Images

For Wednesday's class, our first 'real' class (if a class can ever be real, can ever said to have started), read Chapter 1 of Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, or at least start it. It's a little dense at first, and poses many difficult ideas and questions about theory, so read slowly. If you don't finish, no big deal, since we'll keep talking about it on Friday. 

Here are some ideas to think about along the way. Note these are NOT questions to answer, but ideas to pose to yourself as you read, to help you consider some of the 'big' ideas.

* Why does theory preclude mastery? If you can't master it why should you bother attempting to learn it?

* How can literary texts also become 'theories'? Related to this, What does Derrida mean when he claims "there is no outside-of-text"?

* How can writing about a thing create a thing? The book uses the example of sex and sexual relations; how can writing about marriage (for example) actually create the social codes of marriage?

* Why do many theorists suggest that writing is more than a supplement to speech? Can anything not be a supplement to something else--but truly "original"?

* We often hear people say, "that guy has no common sense!" What are they really saying when they say that? Is common sense a static body of knowledge that people either have or ignore?