A phrase showing the deep reorientation of some literary critics and theorists to the text. It shows the authors' turn in critical and theoretical attention to the texts and the mechanisms by which they are created. In many contemporary literary theories and...
D
DA
To learn more about DA, please see the article Discourse analysis.
Discourse Analysis
The analysis of language (langue) and/or speech (parole) (depending on the theoretical preferences of the author) above the level of the sentence. Linguists' research usually focuses on the sentence and its elements (for example, phonemes and sememes), as well as on...
Decentering of the Subject
A dramatic turn of importance, prestige, or authority, attached from the modern age to the Self, or consciousness, the speaking, autonomous subject. This subject has moved from the center of many discourses on human beings and deeds (anthropology, psychology,...
Decoder
The addressee - the one who receives the message, considered in his role of understanding (decoding), interpreting the message. The addresser - the sender of the message - encrypts the message, ie. transmits the information through some code while the decoder...
Deconstruction, Deconstructionism
A contemporary intellectual current, especially in philosophy, literary theory, and criticism, which (among many other things) tests the rigor of established hierarchies so central to Western thought and culture. For example, in the oppositions: work/play,...
Deduction
A type of inference in which it is assumed that the conclusion necessarily follows from the premise. For example, if it is true that A is greater than B and that B is greater than B, then it necessarily follows that A is greater than C. In this example A is greater...
Deep Structure
A term often used in linguistics and less often in semiotics (mostly in narrative analysis), which is the opposite of surface structure. The deep structure is the subsurface, often hidden structure through which the surface structure, say the sentence or narrative, is...
Defamiliarization
A term that (except for defamiliarization) is often used in the translation of the Russian word ostranenie, used by Russian formalists, to denote an important function of the fairy tale. The main function of poetry and other works of art is to provoke our usual...
Definiendum
A Latin word meaning a word or expression that is subject to definition differs from definiens (the definition or expression proposed as such). When defining "hammer" as "a tool for forging and removing nails and similar objects", "hammer" is the definition, and "tool...
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Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the methods for studying and modeling them. The traditional areas of linguistic analysis include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,...
Phenomenology
A term used by Charles S. Peirce to denote a discipline of philosophy. The term is also used to denote an important movement in modern philosophy, identified with such thinkers as Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Roman Ingarden. It could be said that this...
Feminism
Feminism is an ideology, that, like other ideologies uses reductionism to explain complex issues like, for example, the one that the feminists most commonly cite - the rights to equal pay. Like most ideologies, the feministic too has its roots in somewhat reasonable...
Rationalism
Rationalism in a very general sense means devotion to reason; in a narrower sense, it refers to the doctrine that reason itself has the ability to know reality. In a general sense, then, the rationalist is a defender and advocate of reason. Rationalism is often used...
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is a term introduced by Julia Kristeva and widely accepted by literary theorists to denote the complex way in which a text relates to other texts. Just as there is no sign separate from other signs, there is no text separate from other texts. In...
Free Course in Semiology
A completely and truly free course on Semiology (Semiotics). Learn about the meaning of signs, how and why did the field emerged. What is the relationship between the street signs and the signs that we use every day - words.
