THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION

1. Epistemological representation Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Ren Descartes used the
notion cogito (thinking subject).
I am thinking we are not able to go beyond our thinking and perceiving. We cannot exceed our
perception. The way I perceive is the way I think and how I am. The reality we speak about is the
reality of a thinking subject.
2. Anthological representation Represented by Hans Georg Gadamer. The way I read represents me.
Representation is not substitution but rather presentation (making something present). The truth of a
poem begins with the reading and the act of understanding. A poem is just a potentiality and a reader
constructs it by the act of understanding.
3. Apothetic representation Represented by Roland Barthes and Jacques Lacan. There is no such
thing as the truth of representation because reality is unpresentable.
4. Esthetic representation Represented by Immanuel Kant.
PLATO
Mimesis comes from the word to imitate:
1. Mimesis of participation
2. Mimesis of similarity
The concept of imitation comes from Platonic mimesis of similarity.
Diegesis (narration) The types were distinguished in The Republic:
1. Pure diegesis (haple diegesis) e.g. narration in a novel
2. Diegesis dia mimeseos narrating through imitation (characters speak themselves)
Mimesis shows rather than tells. Diegesis is the telling of a story by a narrator. Plato argues in The Republic
that all types of diegesis narrate events, but by different means. He distinguished between report (haple
diegesis) and imitation/representation (diegesis dia mimeseos). Tragedy and comedy are imitative types,
while dithyramb is narrative. The combination of imitative and narrative is found in epic poetry. When
reporting, the poet is speaking in his own person; he never leads us to suppose that he is anyone else. When
imitating, the poet produces an assimilation of himself to another, either by the use of voice or gesture.
The notion of narration was adapted by Henry James, who spoke about pictorial narration (diegesis dia
mimeseos) and dramatic narration (pure diegesis).
ARISTOTLE
Fields of mimesis:
1. Plot (mythos)
2. Deeds of characters (ethos)
3. Thoughts (dianoia)
Mimesis relates between human actions (mimesis praxeos) and plot (mythos).
Characters perform some actions. We (human beings) create the intrigue thanks to our knowledge that comes
from our experience and language. Readers imitate the creation of plot.
Aristotle represents dynamic idea of narration (ethos + mythos).
THREE POSITIVISTIC APPROACHES TO LITERATURE
1. Sociological approach Represented by Hippolyte Taine and Matthew Arnold.
An Introduction to English Literature by H. Taine environment, race and time are important in
order to speak about a literary text.
2. Biological approach Represented by Ferdinand Brunetire. In Ewolucja Rodzaju w Historii
Literatury, he studied laws which govern a literary text.
3. Aesthophysiopsychological approach Represented by Emile Henneguin. A work of art presents
psychological aspects of the author. We may feel certain physical emotions (e.g. fear) while reading a
text.
SUBJECTIVE (IMPRESSIONISTIC) APPROACH TO LITERATURE

Represented by Anatole France and Jules Lamatre.

A work of art should evoke impressions and produce positive emotions. Science is to reveal objective laws
of nature, while there is not objective truth in literature. We cannot ask what a text means because it depends
on the readers experience. The way you read a text reflects the way you are.
POST-POSITIVISM (ANTIPOSITIVISM) MOVEMENT
1. Post-romantic theory: Wilhelm Dilthey (diltheism), Henri Bergson (vitalism) and Benedetto Croce
(expressionism)
2. Linguistic turn: Russian Formalism, New Criticism and Structuralism
3. Psychoanalysis, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
WILHELM DILTHEY
1883 Introduction to Human Sciences W. Dilthey distinguished between natural and human sciences.
Natural sciences provide us with general laws, whereas human sciences give us traces of human experience.
1887 Poetics
1910 The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences
Normative science: Aesthetic experience belongs to lived experience. We cannot find objective reality in a
text. There is no relation between text/language and world (no referentiality). There is similarity between
writers and readers experience.
HENRI BERGSON (creative critique)
Duration (dure): Now possesses the quality of duration. What Bergson calls now does not exist because
now projects into the future. Now can be perceived with reference to memory. What was before now and
what is after now. This can be illustrated by telescopic image. Particular images contract into the point and
they relate to each other. Mutual relationship is needed (rotation and contraction of images). The idea of
vitality is depicted by duration which points at the intensity of experience.
The role of a critic is to present a text experienced as new by the readers there is no objective rule
Imagination takes part in this creative process.
Vital force (lan vital): This notion helped Bergson to find a way between mechanism and finalism. It is an
original impulse which dispersed through evolution into contradictory tendencies.
CREATIVE TECHNIQUE
Henri Bremond and Albert Thibaudet stated that a literary work of art is a process and paraphrasing it is
rather impossible.
BENEDETTO CROCE
1902 Aesthetics As a Science of Expression and General Linguistics
There is no substantial difference between art and linguistics. Linguistics, as a science of expression, is also
concerned with aesthetics. Art is conceptual phenomenon, so it cannot be considered as science.
Art does not provide us with objective knowledge. The role of a critic is to realize the artists experience.
Croce idealized a work of art which became to him universe, where artistic reality stands for whole reality.
Benedetto Croce dismissed the idea of progress in art. We should not perceive progress in art in terms of
historical progress, which evolves towards perfection.
RUSSIAN FORMALISM
1914-1916: Russian Formalism appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
1916: The Society For the Study of Poetic Language (OPOJAZ) was founded in St. Petersburg. Main
representatives were Victor Shklovsky and Jurij Nikoajewicz Tynianow.
Literary texts should be analyzed in terms of linguistic features
Russian Formalists founded the term of literary theory
Communicative language vs. literary language Russian Formalists tended to reject communicative
role of a literary text, which does not aim to reality

A way in which particular words sound influence meaning (Make a stone stony seeing words as
possessing certain function, e.g. sounds. Words should not be reduced to referential function)
Russian Formalism opposes symbolism. It follows avant-garde movement in Europe (e.g. dada)

VICTOR SHKLOVSKY
Difference between seeing and recognizing: As long as we treat objects in practical sense, we do not see
them. We see objects when we need them (e.g. we see a car when we need it).
Estrangement (defamiliarisation/ostranienije): The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they
are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar, to make forms
difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic
end and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object. The object itself is not
important.
A poem should be read aloud since it sounds in a certain way
Jzyk zaumny: It is non-logic language. A poet does not have to understand his text. If a poem
sounds good, it is enough. Zaumny jzyk refers to autotelic function (The word derives from Greek
auto meaning self and telos meaning goal. The basic aim of a text is to refer to itself, to the way it is
composed. A literary work of art cannot be paraphrased because it means itself, so any changes
would influence meaning)
The elements of prose
Plot (syuzhet): The way a story is organized (composition). Plot makes readers dealing with art as the product of an artist.
Story (fabula): The raw material of a story (events and perspective from which they are told).
Realistic motivation: when something does not break rational rules
Structural motivation: when an object is introduced into a story for certain purpose
VLADIMIR PROPP
1928 Morphology of The Folk Tale
He distinguished 31 functions that appear in every folk tale. For example, abstention (main hero leaves
home) and interdiction (something is prohibited). These functions and their sequence are stable.
Canonization vs. decanonization The introduction of new elements causes a change in whole arrangement.
Stable elements are canonized and they are placed to the centre.
NEW CRITICISM
1941: the term New Criticism was coined by John Crowe Ransom in his book entitled New Criticism
Poetry does not tell us general truths about the world.
The concept of tension: A poem works upon tension rather than logic. The unity of a poem is
achieved by dramatic process.
Texture and structure (John Crowe Ransom): Structure can be paraphrased, but texture not because it
constitutes an idiomatic and local part (e.g. we cannot paraphrase rhyme and meter).
A poem is a logical structure having a local texture.
ROBERT PENN WARREN
A literary work of art should be egocentric (ideological and social backgrounds are not important) texts
should be devoid of any extra context.
Images in poem acquire their meaning only in poem itself. We cannot paraphrase a poem because we would
follow abstraction and generalization then.
Organic theory of literature: It states that unity can be achieved thanks to the relation between form and
content. If we want to say something, we have to put it into certain form. There is no content without form
and the other way round.
T.S. ELIOT
Dissociation of sensibility: We have two types of sensibility (emotional and rational thinking). Dissociation
refers to a clash between emotions and rational thinking, which should be avoided in poetry.

Whole is context: A poem is a context where every element has its place.
Intentional fallacy: When a reader tries to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist
who created it. We should avoid external background and questions about it.
Affective fallacy: When a reader tries to judge or evaluate a work of art on the basis of its emotional effects.
Each poem should be conceived as a drama of conflicting forces. It brings us back to the idea of
tension. Language carries potentiality of different meanings, which become reality in a poem. There
may be different understandings. Paradox and ambiguity are parts of every poem.
Ideal reader: It is a reader devoid of any empirical experience
Pseudo-statement: A statement which cannot be judged in terms of truth and falsity. It means only
within the poem and has no referentiality.
Depersonalization of art: A work of art cannot be treated as the experience of personal feelings
Objective correlative: The only way of expressing emotion in art is by finding a set of objects, a
situation or a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when
the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is evoked.
Poetry is perfectly useless
CLEANTH BROOKS
1971 Irony As a Principle of Structure
When we paraphrase a poem, we limit it to some rational meaning.
A poem is not a set of logical statements.
So worn night: If we take this line from a poem outside context, the connotation of the word wear will be
lost. The word does not mean literary that something passed away. There is no rational meaning found in
poetic language. Metaphorical usage of language is not the translation of literal.
Artistic autonomy of art: Treating a work of art as an object of contemplation which does not provide us
with rational knowledge. Every poem is a collection of potential and incongruent meanings.
Ironic logic: It defines logical thinking in terms of contrast and tension. Every word is a potentiality of
meanings. The same image may evoke contrastive meanings. Contrastive ideas build tension.
THE CONCEPT OF METAPHOR BY MAX BLACK
Metaphor centers around transforming features from source domain to target domain. Max Black said that
we cannot compare two things, but we select certain features. He proposed terms focus and frame:
Plough through the discussion: Focus (ognisko metafory) is plough and frame is through the discussion, i.e.
the new context. Frame modifies focus because plough is originally connected with cultivating crops.

STRUCTURALISM
1929 Theses: the main essay by The Prague School (The Prague Linguistic Circle)
Linguistic turn: A literary text is treated in a parallel way that language is studied by linguists. Structuralists
analyzed the way a literary text differs from common language utterance.
Schools of structuralism
1. The Geneva School of Linguistics (Ferdinand de Saussure) Early Structuralism (Early Thought)
2. The Copenhagen School
3. The American School (Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf)
Linguistic relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis): It holds that the structure of a language affects the
ways in which its speakers conceptualize the world.
4. The Prague School (Roman Jakobson and Jan Mukarovsky)
5. The French School (Grard Genette)
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE*
Course in General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussures lectures between 1906 and 1911
Language: It is a system of signs in which there are only differences

AB paradigmatic relations
CD syntagmatic relations
Paradigmatic (associative) relations:
They are based on the principle either
or. From the repertoire of signs, we
have to choose one (e.g. p or b).
Paradigmatic relations hold in
absentia because we choose between
possibilities.
Syntagmatic relations: It is concerned with combining linguistic entities. We are obliged to follow
grammatical rules (e.g. we cannot say I swim a book because it is incoherent with syntactical rules of
language). Syntagmatic relations hold in presentia because they co-exist.
JAN MUKAROVSKY
On Poetic Language: Aesthetics defines a work of art. He distinguished 4 communication functions:
1. Referential function: How a sign represents an object?
2. Emotive function: What emotions are evoked in the sender?
3. Impressive function: What emotions are evoked in the receiver?
4. Aesthetic function: This function dominates in a work of art.
ROMAN JAKOBSON
Poetics and Linguistics: Jakobson distinguished 6 communication functions:
1. Referential function: contextual information
2. Aesthetic function: auto-reflection
3. Emotive function: self-expression
4. Conative function: vocative or imperative addressing of receiver
5. Phatic function: checking channel working
6. Metalingual function: checking code working (e.g. What does a word cat mean in English?)
Equivalence and sound: When interpreting a poem, Jakobson starts from sound similarities. Equivalence in
sound projected into the sequence as its constitutive principle inevitably involves semantic equivalence. On
any linguistic level, any constituent of such a sequence prompts one or two correlative experiences, which
can be defined as comparison for likeness and comparison for unlikeness.
Selection starts from sound equivalence. From sounds, we may pass to phonemes, sentences, imagery etc.
One of the six functions is always the dominant function in a text and usually related to the type of text. In
poetry, the dominant function is the poetic function: the focus is on the message itself.
The true hallmark of poetry is the projection of equivalence from the axis of selection to the axis of
combination.
The axis of selection: wybieranie podobnych elementw w wierszu, np. podobnych brzmieniowo
The axis of combination: zestawienie wybranych elementw we wsplny kontekst
Two Aspects of Language: Roman Jakobson divided aphasia into two varieties:
1. Disorder in substitution: Substitution disorder defines metonymy. Such patients perfectly combine
elements, but he/she has problems with naming them. Metonymy is based on contiguity (e.g. we add
elements of a sentence in order to form a coherent whole). Metonymy and contiguity relate to
context. In case of substitution disorder, patients select particular words with reference to context
(e.g. color black my grandma died)
2. Disorder in combination: It involves problems with putting words in context. If such a patient was
shown a photo, he/she would name particular elements without creating a context.
Roman Jakobson gave patients the word hut and examined how they responded:
1. Predicative answers: It denotes positional contiguity, when elements are composed into one phrase
The hut burnt out positional contiguity (linear structure)
A hut is a poor little house Here we have positional and semantic contiguities

2. Substitutive answers:
Hut and cabin There is positional similarity (hut and cabin may occupy the same place)
Hut and palace Hut is different than palace, so we have semantic opposition and positional similarity
FRENCH SCHOOL OF NARRATOLOGY
It 1960s, the principles of Ferdinand de Saussure were applied to a narrative text. Main representatives are
Emil Benveniste, Tzvetan Todorov and Gerard Genette.
EMILE BENVENISTE
When analyzing a literary text, we may speak about two types of statements:
1. Sentence (enunce): Grammatical level of a text. It is a statement independent of context.
2. Utterance (enunciation): We move to this level when we have particular context. When talking about
an utterance, 3 factors are indispensable: the concept of I, deictic expressions (phrases that indicate
temporality in a text time from which a text is spoken) and the pronouns of time and place.
TZVETAN TODOROV
A text speaks itself We should not repeat a literary text. It makes no sense because we cannot use the same
words when paraphrasing.
In order to speak about the meaning of a text, we have to distinguish two relations within language:
1. In absentia (paradigmatic relations)
2. In presentia (syntagmatic relations)

GERARD GENETTE
1983 Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method
Mood: It is a grammatical feature of verbs used to signal modality. It is the use of verbal inflections that
allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (e.g. whether it is intended as a desire,
command or statement of fact).
Narrative mood is dependent on distance and perspective.
Distance: Plato distinguished diegesis (pure narration) and mimesis (imitation), while Henry James spoke
about showing narration (pictorial narration) and telling narration (dramatic narration). According to
Gerard Genette, the idea of showing (mimesis) in narrative representation is illusory. Therefore, he rejects
the opposition between diegesis and mimesis. He believes that all we have is degrees of diegesis:
1. Narratives of events
2. Narratives of words
Narrative of events: Textual mimetic factors are the quantity of narrative information and the absence or the
minimal presence of the informer.
Gerard Genette claimed that it is
MIMESIS maximum of information and minimum of the informer
possible to combine these two
DIEGESIS minimum of information and maximum of the informer
arriving at a certain paradox
(mimetic and anti-mimetic at the
same time) mediated intensity

Narrative of words: There is no narrative, but rather a copy of original

utterances. We may distinguish three states of characters speech:
1. Narratized speech (e.g. I informed my mother of my decision to marry Albertine)
2. Transposed speech (e.g. I told my mother that I absolutely had to marry Albertine)
3. Reported speech (e.g. I said to my mother: It is absolutely necessary that I marry Albertine)
Immediate speech (interior monologue)

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
1955 The Structural Study of Myth applied methods are illustrated by the myth of Oedipus
Claude Levi-Strauss discusses the manner in which anthropology should approach the study of myths.

A paradox in myths: On the one hand, myths seem arbitrary because they do not abide by any logic and
anything can happen. On the other hand, Levi-Strauss notes that many different cultures present similar
myths (which is not arbitrary).
While content varies in myth, both across cultures and across times, structure remains the same and stays the
same in different cultures and times.
Myth is like language: Myth is not only conveyed by language, but it also functions like language in the
manner described by Ferdinand de Saussure. According to Levi-Strauss, myths have its langue (synchronous
structure) which enable specific parole (details). While details may vary from myth to myth, the structure
remains the same. The fact that myth is language may be proved by the attempt to translate a myth from one
language to another. Unlike other forms of language, which lose in translation, myth retains its capacities
even when poorly translated.
Mythemes: These are structural components of myths. Every mytheme receives its meaning from its position
in the myth and its relation with other mythemes (similarly to linguistic signs).
The object of the study of myth: Relationships between binary pairs which are translated symbolically (e.g.
life/death sky/earth). These relations are allowed thanks to particular symbols (e.g. mist).
Levi-Strauss holds that there is no correct or original version of a myth and that all versions are valid
for study, especially if studied together. This is because all versions of a myth represent the same
deep structure of the myth. The extraction of this deep structure of myth can be facilitated by the coexamining of different version of the same myth.
Myth is the product of contradicting values (e.g. life/death)!
Structural narratology It was developed in the 1960s. What we see and understand is not in fact purely
objective reality, but conceptions and interpretation of different semiotic systems. Reality is built from
cultural narratives. If reality is built from narratives, the narratives can also be classified and studied. In
France, the structuralist movement provided legitimacy to the study of non-verbal forms of representation
(for example advertisement and photography for Barthes).
Tzvetan Todorov used the term narratology in his research where he analyzed different parts of an
individual story and defined their functions and mutual relations. A story is a collection of events, motives,
themes and storylines, often told in a chronological order. The plot describes logical and causal structure of
themes and events, motivates events and explains their order.
Many later theorists of structural narratology have been inspired by Russian author Vladimir Propp. His
work Morphology of the Folktale was not generally known in the western world until the 1960s. Propp
studied more than a hundred of Russian fairytales. His theoretical point of departure was that stories all have
similar structure, which is why they are easy to translate to other languages, and they could be broken down
and their structures and motives can be examined as separate components. Propps research results led to the
conclusion that narrative structures are universal and so common that they can be used to explain wider
entities in human culture.
Benedetto Croces expressivism - Croce distinguishes concept from intuition: intuition is acquaintance with
the individuality of an object, while concept is an instrument of classification. Art is to be understood first as
expression and second as intuition. The distinction between representation and expression is ultimately
identical with that between concept and intuition. The peculiarities of aesthetic interest are really
peculiarities of intuition: this explains the problem of form and content and gives the meaning of the idea
that the object of aesthetic interest is interesting for its own sake.
Benedetto Croces extreme view of the autonomy of art led him to dismiss all attempts to describe art as a
form of representation or to establish direct connections between the content of art and the content of
scientific theories.
Thematics (Russian Formalism) This term was coined by Boris Tomashevsky in 1925 in his article
Thematics. He claimed that many texts can have one theme, but one text can also have many themes. In the
tradition of Russian Formalism, Tomashevsky tried to isolate and define the formal properties of poetic

language and argued that the theme of a text is the sum of its meanings and its elements. More precisely, the
themes (or motifs) of the text form the building blocks of texts.
Irony (Cleanth Brooks) It is a principle of order
and unity. Brooks perceived irony similarly to
Victor Shklovskys notion of defamiliarisation (a
quality of language designed to wrench our
thoughts into unaccustomed but enlightened
pathways).
Paradox (Cleanth Brooks) It is a device which
compensates for the limitations of conventional
language. Paradox is the only way in which the
poets can express unconventional insights. It is
necessary for poetry.
Literary evolution (Yury Tynyanov Russian Formalism) The analysis was incorporated into his work On
Literary Evolution. The evolution of literature must be studied as a system. It is a struggle between
competing evidence. Literature constitutes part of the overall cultural system. It interacts with other human
activities, for instance, linguistic communication. The communicative domain enriches literature with new
constructive principles.
Understanding and poetics (Wilhelm Dilthey) He stressed historically embedded interpreters. In order to
gain a great knowledge of texts and authors, we should use understanding and interpretation, which
combine individual-psychological and social-historical analysis. Interpretation is a type of understanding.
The definitions of understanding by Wilhelm Dilthey:
1. Proces, w ktrym na podstawie zmysowo danych przejaww ycia psychicznego osigamy poznanie
2. Proces, w ktrym na podstawie znakw zewntrznych dostarczanych przez zmysy poznajemy sfer wewntrzn
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (AD.*)
Linguistic sign: unites signifier (signifi) and signified (signifiant) these two elements recall each other
Signified (signifiant): concept (e.g. a tree)
Signifier (signifi): sound-image (psychological imprint of a sound & impressions that it makes on our
senses)
Langue (language) vs. parole (speaking)
Langue is composed of abstract and systematic rules. It is independent of individual users. Langue involves
the principles of language without which no meaningful utterance (parole) would be possible.
Parole is concrete instance of the use of language. It is willful and intellectual act of an individual.
Binary oppositions: It is the means by which the units of language have value or meaning. Each unit is
defined in reciprocal determination with another term (as in binary code). Saussure demonstrated that a
sign's meaning is derived from its context (syntagmatic dimension) and the group (paradigm) to which it
belongs. An example of this is that one cannot conceive of good if we do not understand evil.
Value: It is the sign as determined by the other signs in a semiotic system. For Ferdinand de Saussure, the
content of a sign in linguistics is ultimately determined by what surrounds it: the synonyms to dread, to fear,
and to be afraid have their particular values because they exist in opposition to one another.