For Thursday: Read Chapter 1, "What is Theory?" from Culler's Literary Theory: AVSI

REMEMBER, I want you to just try to read some or all of Chapter 1 from Culler's Literary Theory for Thursday's class. I won't give you any response questions or quizzes or anything over this material--it's just a way to 'get your feet wet' with the reading. We'll discuss it in depth in Thursday's class, and I'll try to discuss some of the big ideas from this chapter, which we'll revisit over and over again throughout the class. 

However, if you would prefer a guide, here's a few ideas to consider as you read (you DO NOT have to answer these, just think about them):

* According to Culler, what is and isn't a theory? What does it mean to apply theories to things like books?

*  What does it mean that "works regarded as theory have efforts beyond their original field"?

* How could common sense (which people are said to have or simply don't) actually a historical construction? What does it mean that common sense is itself a theory, and therefore, impossible to prove?

* How could the very notion of an author be a theory? Or the idea that a specific person is the 'author' of a work, and therefore, knows everything possible about that work?

* How could sex be an effect rather than a cause, according to Foucault, one of the writers discussed in this chapter?

* How can literature create the very subjects it tries to write about?

* Is writing a lesser form of speech (a supplement), or is it merely another kind of speech or speaking? After all, writing often imitates speech...so does this mean it is derivative of it? 

* What does it mean that everything is a supplement of something else? How can even the object of our desires not really satisfy our need for fulliment? 

* Why might the statement, "just be yourself," be a contradiction in terms? IS there a true self vs. a false one? And if so, what might make it 'false'? Where do we find the 'true'?