Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Secret Coherence


Is there something holding a text all together? Some sort of hidden pin or clip that clasps the text, vice-like, in an unquestioned cohesion of intrinsic meaning? Structural discourses posit a rationality to texts that make them cohere. Such coherence precedes the text: this rational cohesion is somehow stowed away, secreted, between the noggins and behind the panels of a polished text so that no customs officer would question its passage. What happens, though, if you squeeze the clip and unclasp this cohesion?: shine a torch and tap on the thin veneer of the seemingly upright text? Out pops a whole family of vagabonds, rife with excess meaning, all unaccounted for and bewildered in the bright light of questioning. Alas, with this traffic of unharmonious meaning the borders of our poststructural sensibility are a sham.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home