So. I’m looking for a universalizing theory of literature, and I’m looking to demonstrate how such a theory can be applied and in so doing apply the theory to the cannonical member in the set of works of English literature, to wit, Shakespeare.
Narrative Theory addresses the problem of authorship and the problem of responsibility in literature that haunts critics. The question is in whom does power over the text lie. Many would argue that the author, as the arranger of the words, holds power. Yet Barthes argues that the critic, the interpreter of a work applies assigns meaning to the words arranged by the author, and that previous to this assignment the work was valuless. Althusser puts a huge significance on signification and the power of naming. However, is it the author who uses the word who assigns a name, or the reader who associates that name with an image who is in fact creative?
My hope, or rather, my focus, is to delve into this problem. My inclination is to assign omnipotence to the text itself, and to prove that, through the usurpation of a narrative role, that the text is self perpetuating and self creating. That, without the author or the reader the narrotor could subside and thrive, going forward with meaning in print.
The appeal of such a narrative theory is profound, because it romoves text from the purview of the author or the reader, providing all readings with universal validity so long as the originate in the text. This notion unifys other critical theories by disabling the society of either the author or the critic; neither outside force influences the message of the text itself, and so the text can be taken as its own problem with its own solution.
If the narrator is responsible for bringing the text into being, then certainly a narrator must be present in every text. The tragedies of Shakespeare are interesting. In drama there is little room for hidden forces. If the play is to be performed, then some directing force must be aware of every element that will be included. However, in examining Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, King Lear, and McBeth I seek to demonstrate a narrative element that itself creates the play, and which is seperate from either the viewer or the narrator, which is the text itself.
Yah, that’s the goal.
