An Introduction to Everyday Theory

Featured TheoristsFeatured Theorists

Jean-Paul Jean-Paul SARTRESARTRE

Roland Roland BARTHESBARTHES

Jonathan Jonathan CULLERCULLER

N. Katherine N. Katherine HAYLESHAYLES

Presented by Deidre Price

Aims

• Define the “everyday” and “theory”

• Establish the intersection between theory and the everyday

• Continue Sartre’s discussion of the writer’s relationship with the text, as well as the role of the audience

• Evaluate the purpose of Barthes’s discourse on his obsessions with writing tools and methods

• Consider Culler’s focus on the “underlying system” and its implications on one’s ability to interpret literarily

• Engage in a discussion about Hayles’s notion of virtuality

The “Everyday”

• The stuff of _____________________

• Includes ____________________

• Extends to _____________________

What Is Theory?

23 items

(McLaughlin and Coleman 2)

What Is the Purpose of Theory?

Theory enables readers to ______________

Theorists’ intention is ___________________

What Does Theory Accomplish?

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Sartre’s Conclusions

McLaughlin and Coleman summarize Sartre’s notions as follows:

• “Writers cannot exist for themselves alone. In order for their creations to be seen, they need readers” (16).

• “One cannot write for oneself because when one reads one’s own work, all one finds there is oneself” (16).

• “What is always at stake for Sartre is the freedom of writer and reader to enter a relationship of shared responsibility” (16).

Roland Barthes (1915-1980)

Relating to Barthes

Jonathan Culler (1944—)

Culler’s Conclusions

What is Culler’s Aim?

N. Katherine Hayles (1943—)

Hayles’s Questions

Discussion Question #1

How is technology changing our relationships to texts and to writing?

Has storytelling moved from a textual to a visual or virtual medium today?

How is watching a film like reading a novel?

How is it different?

(McLaughlin and Coleman 83)

Discussion Question #2

For Culler, Hayles, or Sartre, reading seems to be a social act. How is reading a social act?

How is meaning made in the process of reading?

Who is in control of this process, and where does meaning happen or get created?

Is it created by the writer? The reader? Both? The language?

(McLaughlin and Coleman 83)

Discussion Question #3

A key word that is often implicit in these essays is “interpretation.” What does it mean to interpret a text or an event in the eyes of these critics?

How might one define interpretation differently depending on which of the critics one is influenced by?

Is “reading” really a kind of metaphor for interpretation? Can you read without interpreting? Or vice versa?

(McLaughlin and Coleman 83)

Conclusion

How do Sartre, Barthes, How do Sartre, Barthes, Culler, and Hayles’s theories Culler, and Hayles’s theories support the notion of an support the notion of an everyday brand of theory?everyday brand of theory?

Works Cited

McLaughlin, Becky, and Bob Coleman, eds. Everyday Theory: A Contemporary Reader. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.