Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

narrating about narrative 55
narratives create meaning. In other words, the scene outside comes into
existence only as a result of the creation of the frame and the glass.
Semiotic approaches to narrative reject the typical essentialist emphasis
on plot, narrators, and/or tone. They focus on how these elements come
together to construct meaning and discourse. If a semiotic reading of narrative
were to be plotted as a formula, it would look like x → y, where x and
y represent different elements of a story, and the arrow symbolizes the process
by which x becomes y. Unlike in the essentialist equation of a b c,
there is no solution, but rather a constant process of uncovering how meaning
comes to be.
Besides rejecting the idea that narratives and their authors can reveal
truths about an ontological world, semioticians reject the notion of a literary
canon. While they might agree that certain narrative styles, or certain
pieces of literature, are exceptional, semioticians view canons as saying
much more about the people who assemble them than about the works being
included or excluded. They believe that constructing notions of literary
standards runs the risk of allowing hegemonic power to exclude dissenting
voices, discourses, and aesthetics. Semioticians seek to include more voices
and styles, not wanting to silence those with less access to power. The more
open we remain to a multiplicity of aesthetic standards, the greater our potential
to understand the meaning of reality as a social construct.
On the whole, semioticians ask very different questions about narratives
than their essentialist counterparts do. Essentialists look to narratives for
authenticity, truth, affirmation of the human experience, and authorial intention.
Semioticians want to expose ongoing constructs.
Some of the semioticians’ key questions are asked by Jonathan Culler
in another work of his called Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
We cite some of these questions here and embellish them with some of our
own. Afterward, we offer further examples of this difference in objectives by
applying both essentialist and semiotic readings to the writings of El Inca
Garcilaso de la Vega and the literary movement called magical realism. 5
“Who speaks?” (Culler, 87) Is it a fi rst-person narrator or an observer of the
events? A character within the novel or an omniscient narrator? Keep in
mind that a text can focus on a particular character and be told by an omniscient
narrator.
“Who speaks to whom?” (88) Who is being narrated to? Are readers implied
or are they constructed characters within the text? An audience can be implied
from the era when the text was published. As we approach texts from