paul-denicola-literature-pure-mediality

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In this picture of language we find the roots of the following idea: every word has a meaning. This meaning is correlated with the word. It is the object for which the word stands” (29). What Wittgenstein is essentially referring to is an understanding of words, language and meaning via a system that separates the signifier (that sign/symbol which corresponds to a fixed, immutable thing), from a signified (that concept which embodies the presence or meaning of the sign). Preference for this instrumental model of communication that sees language as a means, which is capable of bringing us towards what might be called fixed “meaning,” is one of the greatest limitations in the human attempt to establish an authentic understanding of the dynamics of communication. An acceptance of this perspective on language, spoken or written, constricts our ability to have an adequate confrontation, or more accurately, experience of/with media and communication. Schirmacher, in his essay “Media as Life- World” attests to a concern with media viewed both from the traditional perspective of structuralism, as well as what might be called “new media” theories: When speaking or writing about media we still tend to think in terms of channels to which sender and receiver are connected, a temptingly simple but inadequate definition. Current media theory proposes the "Gutenberg Galaxy" has run its course that the electronic media itself has become the "message" and its forms are to be understood as "extensions of man." Following Marshall McLuhan and considering the stunning developments of the "new media" theorists such as Neil Postman, media is analyzed not only as a metaphor and representation of knowledge, but as an activity, one shaping our social environment and subject to media ecology. This shift in understanding necessitates a fundamental change in our relation to media, and in our thinking. Yet although the distinctions between reality and imagination, truth and fantasy seem to vanish, and the acceptance of 5
media as an authentic life-world the next step, media theory is still reluctant to face this consequence. Signification, representation, the ideology of an independent reality as the measure of truth - these are compelling and long-held presuppositions not easily cast aside (4). What he notes here is that there has been reluctance, whether conscious or not, to move away from the comfortable space of the definite, the signifying and the representative, towards perspectives on communication that lend themselves to multiplicity and the possibility of infinite interpretation. This preference for the representative value of the sign over the possibility of limitless connotative understandings affords us only a constructed/constricted space for encountering forms of media; speech, <strong>literature</strong>, the visual arts, music, etc. 1.2 19 th Century Developments: Kleist, Mach and Nietzsche Historical resistance to instrumental, sender/receiver, medium/message conceptions of language emerge strongly during the early nineteenth century, prominently in the <strong>literature</strong> of the German Romantics. Kleist, among others recognized the confines that a traditional understanding of language can have on attempts to communicate: And I should like to tell you everything, if that were possible. But it is not possible, for this reason if for no other: that we lack the means. Language, all we have, is not adequate to the task; it cannot depict the soul, and gives us only shreds and fragments. That is why I feel something like horror whenever I am to disclose my innermost self to anyone; not because that self is shy of being uncovered but because I cannot show the person everything, simply cannot, and 6
Page 1 and 2: Literature as Pure Mediality: Kafka
Page 3 and 4: Abstract The utilization of an inst
Page 5 and 6: 3.7 Narrative Rupture 49 3.8 Death
Page 7: “Language is possible because it
Page 11 and 12: A functional explanation is one tha
Page 13 and 14: 1.3 From Benjamin to Deleuze and Gu
Page 15 and 16: function of impotence” (8). This
Page 17 and 18: We again find the instrumental or u
Page 19 and 20: communication is a teleologically o
Page 21 and 22: interconnectedness of the world, a
Page 23 and 24: series of events, which are somehow
Page 25 and 26: (480). Each of these concepts is co
Page 27 and 28: effective, it will not be so throug
Page 29 and 30: All communication of the contents o
Page 31 and 32: may still be an imperfect one. The
Page 33 and 34: and Difference 292). According to t
Page 35 and 36: 2.5 Kafka and the Language of Infin
Page 37 and 38: “To refrain from judgment is the
Page 39 and 40: well as the subsequent self-executi
Page 41 and 42: is approached, the issue resolves i
Page 43 and 44: Any attempt to reduce a text like
Page 45 and 46: would be the end of hermeneutics an
Page 47 and 48: Stupidity is…that which fails to
Page 49 and 50: over water. . . . How everything ca
Page 51 and 52: That is to say that the story’s s
Page 53 and 54: as Frieda. By becoming tied to her
Page 55 and 56: comprehension” (The Work of Fire,
Page 57 and 58: undecidability, so does that of the
Page 59 and 60:
definition transitive) which would
Page 61 and 62:
“What is deferred forever till de
Page 63 and 64:
afforded an opportunity to rectify
Page 65 and 66:
4.3 The Figures of Law: In an analy
Page 67 and 68:
atelier” (150-151). Joseph K. fin
Page 69 and 70:
from the accused as well…for even
Page 71 and 72:
approached the picture as if he wan
Page 73 and 74:
to be acquitted; on the other hand
Page 75 and 76:
The first option, “actual acquitt
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defendant granted a judgment in per
Page 79 and 80:
“We will never ask what a book me
Page 81 and 82:
imitation of the animal, or “bein
Page 83 and 84:
The rhizome is not reducible to a p
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animal” Gregor experiences a prof
Page 87 and 88:
There were old half-rotten vegetabl
Page 89 and 90:
and to indicate to her in this way
Page 91 and 92:
for this uncontained state to freel
Page 93 and 94:
some compromise would be possible w
Page 95 and 96:
formulation of judgment. By its ver
Page 97 and 98:
to failure, even a correct one… G
Page 99 and 100:
Throughout my reading of Kafka’s
Page 101 and 102:
impossible. Except that its mediati
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eference that seems to co-ordinate
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To read/listen Kafka’s writing/mu
Page 107 and 108:
All right, people did not understan
Page 109 and 110:
the point at which his sister comme
Page 111 and 112:
“The Metamorphosis” presents a
Page 113 and 114:
Within the first paragraph of the t
Page 115 and 116:
community’s experience of Josephi
Page 117 and 118:
which one can no longer grasp onto
Page 119 and 120:
double-nature of existence, its und
Page 121 and 122:
I was in great difficulty. An urgen
Page 123 and 124:
the doctor now opens himself to the
Page 125 and 126:
country doctor’s anger and frustr
Page 127 and 128:
linguistic point of view. Although
Page 129 and 130:
and hardly hear the axe in the fore
Page 131 and 132:
“At that moment an unending strea
Page 133 and 134:
would not be justifiable to define
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8.2 Kafka’s Reach: Let me conclud
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elationship. That is, it cannot be
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Bänden, 1084). It is this sense of
Page 141 and 142:
Bauman, Zygmunt. Postmodernity and
Page 143 and 144:
Derrida, Jacques. Politics of Frien
Page 145 and 146:
Holland, Eugene W. Deleuze and Guat
Page 147 and 148:
---. The Birth Of Tragedy. (Transla
Page 149 and 150:
Ulfers, Friedrich. “Kafka's Das U
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