Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature.[1]
However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of intellectual history, moral philosophy, social prophecy, and other interdisciplinary themes which are of relevance to the way humans interpret meaning.[1]
In humanities in modern academia, the latter style of scholarship is an outgrowth of critical theoryand is often called simply “theory.”[2] As a consequence, the word “theory” has become an umbrella term for a variety of scholarly approaches to reading texts. Many of these approaches are informed by various strands ofContinental philosophy and sociology.
Category: Hyperreality
Intertextuality – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Intertextuality is the shaping of texts’ meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.
The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined bypoststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966.
Kristeva’s coinage of “intertextuality” represents an attempt to synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics—his study of how signs derive their meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin’s dialogism—his examination of the multiple meanings, or “heteroglossia”, in each text (especially novels) and in each word.[2]
For Kristeva,[3] “the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of intersubjectivity” when we realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader but instead is mediated through, or filtered by, “codes” imparted to the writer and reader by other texts.
For example, when we readJames Joyce’s Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment, or as a response to the epic tradition, or as part of some other conversation, or as part of all of these conversations at once. This intertextual view of literature, as shown by Roland Barthes, supports the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also the complex network of texts invoked in the reading process.
Metatheatre – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Metatheatre – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The term “metatheatre“, coined by Lionel Abel, has entered into common critical usage; however, there is still much uncertainty over its proper definition and what dramatic techniques might be included in its scope. Many scholars have studied its usage as a literary technique within great works of literature.
Abel described metatheatre as reflecting comedy and tragedy, at the same time, where the audience can laugh at the protagonist while feeling empathetic simultaneously.[1] The technique reflects the world as an extension of human conscience, not accepting prescribed societal norms, but allowing for more imaginative variation, or a possible social change.[2]
Abel also relates the character of Don Quixote as the prototypical, metatheatrical, self-referring character. He looks for situations he wants to be a part of, not waiting for life, but replacing reality with imagination when the world is lacking in his desires.[3] The character is aware of his own theatricality.
Alva Ebersole adds to the idea of metatheatrical characters saying that the technique is an examination of characters within the broader scheme of life, in which they create their own desires and actions within society.[4] He adds that role-playing derives from the character not accepting his societal role and creating his own role to change his destiny.
The word “metatheatre” comes from the Greek prefix ‘meta’, which implies ‘a level beyond’ the subject that it qualifies; “metatheatricality” is generally agreed to be a device whereby a play comments on itself, drawing attention to the literal circumstances of its own production, such as the presence of the audience or the fact that the actors are actors, and/or the making explicit of the literary artifice behind the production.
Some critics use the term to refer to any play which involves explicit ‘performative’ aspects, such as dancing, singing, or role-playing by onstage characters, even if these do not arise ‘from specifically metadramatic awareness’ ; whereas others condemn its use except in very specific circumstances, feeling that it is too often used to describe phenomena which are simply ‘theatrical‘ rather than in any sense ‘meta’.
Stuart Davis suggests that “metatheatricality” should be defined by its fundamental effect of destabilizing any sense of realism:
” ‘Metatheatre’ is a convenient name for the quality or force in a play which challenges theatre’s claim to be simply realistic — to be nothing but a mirror in which we view the actions and sufferings of characters like ourselves, suspending our disbelief in their reality. Metatheatre begins by sharpening awareness of the unlikeness of life to dramatic art; it may end by making us aware of life’s uncanny likeness to art or illusion.
By calling attention to the strangeness, artificiality, illusoriness, or arbitrariness — in short, the theatricality — of the life we live, it marks those frames and boundaries that conventional dramatic realism would hide.”[11]
Macrocosm and microcosm – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level). In the system the mid-point is Man, who summarizes the cosmos.
The Greeks were philosophically concerned with a rational explanation of everything and saw the repetition of the golden ratio throughout the world and all levels of reality as a step towards this unifying theory. In short, it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population.
Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- “Macro-” and μικρο- “Micro-“, which are Greek respectively for “large” and “small”, and the word κόσμος kósmos which means “order” as well as “world” or “ordered world.”
Today, the concept of microcosm has been dominated by sociology to mean a small group of individuals whose behavior is typical of a larger social body encompassing it. A microcosm can be seen as a special kind of epitome. Conversely, a macrocosm is a social body made of smaller compounds.
via Macrocosm and microcosm – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Fractal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fractal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A fractal is a mathematical set that has a fractal dimension that usually exceeds its topological dimension[1] and may fall between the integers.[2]
Fractals are typically self-similar patterns, where self-similar means they are “the same from near as from far”[3] Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale, or as illustrated in Figure 1, they may be nearly the same at different scales.[2][4][5][6] The definition of fractalgoes beyond self-similarity per se to exclude trivial self-similarity and include the idea of a detailed pattern repeating itself.[2]:166; 18[4][7]
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Polis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Derivatives of polis are common in many modern European languages. This is indicative of the influence of the polis-centred Hellenic world view. Derivative words in English include policy, polity, police and politics. In Greek, words deriving from polis include politēs and politismos, whose exact equivalents in Latin, Romance and other European languages, respectively civis (citizen), civilisatio (civilization) etc. are similarly derived.
A number of words end in the word “-polis”. Most refer to a special kind of city and/or state. Some examples are:
- Astropolis — star-scaled city/industry area; complex space station; a European star-related festival.
- Cosmopolis — a large urban centre with a population of many different cultural backgrounds; a novel written by Don DeLillo.
- Ecumenopolis — a city that covers an entire planet, usually seen in science fiction
- Megalopolis, built by merging several cities and their suburbs.
- Metropolis can refer to the mother city of a colony, the see of a metropolitan archbishop or a Metropolitan area — a major urban population centre.
- Necropolis ‘city of the dead’ — a graveyard.
- Technopolis — city with high-tech industry; room full of computers; the Internet.
Other refer to part of a city or a group of cities, such as:
- Acropolis, ‘high city’ — upper part of a polis, often citadel and/or site of major temple(s).
- Decapolis, a group of ten cities
- Dodecapolis, a group of twelve cities
- Pentapolis, a group of five cities
- Tripolis, a group of three cities, retained in the names of a Tripoli in Libya, in Greece and a namesake in Lebanon
Braid (video game) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Braid is played by solving physical puzzles in a standard platform game environment.
The player controls the protagonist Tim as he runs, jumps, and climbs across the game’s levels. Tim jumps and stomps on enemies to defeat them, and can collect keys to unlock doors or operate levers to trigger platforms.
A defining game element is the player’s unlimited ability to reverse time and “rewind” actions, even after dying. The game is divided into six worlds, which are experienced sequentially and can be entered from different rooms of Tim’s house; the player can return to any world previously visited to attempt to solve puzzles they missed.
Each world has its own time-based game mechanic.