Andrea Lorenz

English 300

Dr. Sexson

7 December 2004

Everything is a Text

I believe that Jacques Derrida said it best when he said, “Il n’y a pas de hors-texte” (Derrida 1817). There is no outside of the text. Everything is a text. The French Lieutenant’s Woman sitting on my desk is a text and so is the Pepsi can situated conspicuously and conveniently close to my right hand. One might even argue that the Pepsi can is more poetic than The French Lieutenant’s Woman. “For free fructose flavors (natural) Visit our website – of carbonated calories prepared amount per serving by date on bottom of can. Please recycle more information based on a serving size.” However, a contest of poetics is less important than simply recognizing the textuality of the Pepsi can. We can not (pun not intended) make progression to a universal literacy “without risking – which is the only chance of entering into the game, by getting a few fingers caught – the addition of some new thread” (Derrida 1830). Jacques understood that we must see everything as a text in order to move beyond, to move to the next level.

“Experts say perhaps three to four million Americans cannot read or write at all – between twenty and thirty million Americans lack so many basic educational skills that they cannot read, write, calculate, or solve problems well enough to function effectively on the job or in their everyday lives” (Shannon 116). Investigations of literacy show these scary statistics. We are living in a world, in a country, in a society, and in a community where literacy is privileged. One cannot get a job or, as Shannon said, “function…in their everyday lives,” without being able to read or write. One may ask what this has to do with literary criticism. I’ll tell you. In a world where everything is a text, twenty to thirty million people cannot read or write. The public educational system has failed them. There are twenty to thirty million people who cannot interpret the world in which they live.

I believe that Northrop Frye said it best when he said, “It is therefore impossible to ‘learn literature’: one learns about it in a certain way, but what one learns, transitively, is the criticism of literature” (Frye 1446). It is important to understand that criticism is not only “finding fault” or “disapproval” (“Criticism” 334). Criticism is also “the act of making judgments; analysis of qualities and evaluation of comparative worth; especially the critical consideration and judgment of literary or artistic works” (“Criticism” 344). To me, literary criticism is not only a commentary on a text; it is a way of interpreting the world. Seeing as everything is a text, it would seem only natural “to think this out: that it is not a question of embroidering upon a text, unless one considers that to know how to embroider still means to have the ability to follow the given thread” (Derrida 1831). We need literary criticism in order to make decisions about what we like and don’t like. We need literary criticism in order to make judgments about what is important or not important. We need literary criticism in order to understand the world.

“The poor don’t learn to read as well because schools do not provide them with the same curriculum or instruction as they do for their more well-to-do counterparts” (Shannon 137-138). As much as I hate to admit it, there is no such thing as equal opportunity in education. When literacy studies show that twenty to thirty million people can’t read or write, it is our educational system at fault. One may ask what this has to do with literary criticism. I’ll tell you. Because the world is a text, people need a way to interpret the world. Thanks to Northrop Frye, we now have a method: literary criticism. However, public schools aren’t giving students the tools, the literary criticisms, they need to make sense of and survive in their world of text. Students need to be able to read and look beyond what they’ve read to find the message applicable to their lives.

I believe that Virginia Woolf said it best when she said, “’The proper stuff of fiction’ does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought, every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon, no perception comes amiss” (Woolf 2153). My Pepsi can ode is the proper stuff of fiction. Woolf gives readers and writers the green light to create new worlds and new meanings. She invites us to follow Derrida down to Plato’s Pharmacy to see “the words come apart, bits and pieces of sentences…separated…institute an internal commerce, take themselves for a dialogue. Full of meaning. A whole story. An entire history. All of philosophy” (Derrida 1876). The ability to create a story and change history lies at our fingertips. We only need to pick up a pencil or pick up a pen and write down the disarticulated parts.

“Gifted children…are everywhere in East St. Louis, but their gifts are lost to poverty and turmoil and the damage done by knowing they are written off by their society” (Kozol 33-34). A Jacques Derrida could be living in East St. Louis and the world would never know. A Northrop Frye could be living in East St. Louis and the world would never know. A Virginia Woolf could be living in East St. Louis and the world would never know. One might ask what this has to do with literary criticism. I’ll tell you. Through an investigation of these literary critics, we have found that literary criticism provides the skills needed for students to interpret and reanalyze their surroundings. Without literacy and the tools that literary criticism gives to students, many people are lost and unable to function in their everyday lives. Recognizing this, we need to take up the pen that Virginia Woolf has granted us and create a world in which there is educational equal opportunity for all.

WORKS CITED

“Criticism.” Webster’s New World College Dictionary. 4^th ed. 2000. 334.

Derrida, Jacques. “Plato’s Pharmacy.” Trans. Barbara Johnson. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 1817-1876

Frye, Northrop. “The Archetypes of Literature.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 1445-1457.

Woolf, Virginia. “Modern Fiction.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Jon Stallworthy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 2148-2153.

Shannon, Patrick. Reading Poverty. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998.

Kozol, Jonathon. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991.