Page 76 - Critical and Cultural Theory

CHAPTER 6

TEXTUALITY

Recent theoretical developments have substantially redefined the
concept of language (by emphasizing that all sorts of signs and
symbols - not merely 'words' - can be thought of as language)
and the concept of reading (by showing that what we read is not
just books, newspapers, etc. but our cultural environment as a
whole). 1 The text has undergone a comparable reassessment.
Everything can be regarded as a text: plays and platters, billboards
and blackboards, guns and gowns, statistics and statues are all, in
different ways, texts: namely, objects and data that are always
open to varying readings and interpretations. This openness
entails that a text cannot be viewed as the sealed and self-
contained product of a single author. Texts are not so much fixed
entities as processes: they keep changing and gaining novel conno-
tations according to how they are received and perceived by their
readers and to the cultural circumstances in which they are
produced and consumed. Etymologically, 'text' is associated with
weaving (from the Latin texere = 'to weave'). The idea that a text
is neither closed nor the exclusive possession of one maker under-
scores the idea that its 'fabric' can be endlessly made and unmade.
This chapter examines the theme of textuality with reference to
relevant aspects of the writings of Roland Barthes and Julia
Kristeva. These two critics have been selected on the grounds that
they constitute apt illustrations of contemporary approaches to
textuality as an expansive and multi-faceted phenomenon. Both
Barthes and Kristeva have contributed to the extension of the
concept of the text. They have done so on various levels. Firstly,

' W This idea is discussed in Part /, Chapter 5, 'Reading'.

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