There cannot exist slaves on this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French.

But we cannot do without the concept of the sign, we cannot give up this metaphysical complicity without also giving up the critique we are directing against this complicity, without the risk of erasing difference [altogether] in the self-identity of a signified reducing into itself its signifier, or, what amounts to the same thing, simply expelling it outside itself.

are trapped in a sort of circle. This circle is unique. It describes the form of the relationship between the history of metaphysics and the destruction of the history of metaphysics.

his moment was that in which language invaded the universal problematic; that in which, in the absence of a center or origin, everything became discourse-provided we can agree on this word-that is to say, when everything became a system where the central signified, the original or transcendental signified, is never absolutely present outside a system of differences. The absence of the transcendental signified extends the domain and the interplay of signification ad infinitum.

The center is not the center

. Thus it has always been thought that the center, which is by definition unique, constituted that very thing within a structure which governs the structure, while escaping structurality

much poetry should not be indulged.

A plan of female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation with me. It has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters occasionally required

In music they are more generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch (* 2). Whether they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of melody, or of complicated harmony, is yet to be proved

An animal whose body is at rest, and who does not reflect, must be disposed to sleep of course

experimentalist has discovered to be the principal regulator of animal heat,

The first difference which strikes us is that of colour. Whether the black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds from the colour of the blood, the colour of the bile, or from that of some other secretion, the difference is fixed in nature, and is as real as if its seat and cause were better known to us.

while it is education which teaches us to (* 8) honor force more than finesse

truth will finally and powerfully prevail.

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity.

Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or anything else. Not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his writing. The history of him is altogether the work of other people; and as to the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground..

heathen mythology.

It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it…

for my own part, I disbelieve them all

as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.

EVERY national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals.

thousands more will probably suffer the same fate.

British barbarity

he trade of America goes to ruin, BECAUSE OF HER CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND

It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.

But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from the same country; therefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.

. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe.

hat her motive was INTEREST not ATTACHMENT; that she did not protect us from OUR ENEMIES on OUR ACCOUNT, but from HER ENEMIES on HER OWN ACCOUNT, from those who had no quarrel with us on any OTHER ACCOUNT, and who will always be our enemies on the SAME ACCOUNT.

that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness,

agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were,

her influence.

name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.

My soul acquiesced fully in the will of God

O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are in. ’Tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell.

The Scripture represents them as his goods,

righteousness

There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.

My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought and imagination; like an infinite deluge, or mountain over my head.

so that I have often been forced to shut myself up.

and returned like a dog to his vomit, and went on in the ways of sin.

I used to pray five times a day in secret

remarkable awakening in my father’s congregation.

I had a variety of concerns and exercises about my soul from my childhood;

What difference does it make who is speaking?

The text always contains a certain number of signs referring to the author.

evertheless, these aspects of an individual which we designate as making him an author are only a projection, in more or less psychologizing terms, of the operations we force texts to undergo, the connections we make, the traits we establish as pertinent, the continuities we recognize, or the exclusions we practice

But if we proved that Shakespeare did not write those sonnets which pass for his, that would constitute a significant change and affect the manner in which the author's name functions.

How can one define a work amid the millions of traces left by someone after his death?

criticism is not to bring out the work's relationships with the author

dead man in the game of writing.

First of all, we can say that today's writing has freed itself from the theme of expression.

Traditions are no longer passed down the generations. Instead, they are learned from celebrity chefs, the modern day oracles.

virtually no Christmas symbolism.

Social semioticians are interested in the way socially accepted meanings change as society evolves. For this project, the most relevant social change over the last 20 years in both countries is that most women in both countries are now in full time or part time work

emotional attachments that consumers have to brands

perfect’ also required women to conform to what many might think are outdated notions of their role.

st Century women about making the Christmas mea

consumers.

That we must rely on God Himself, and our whole dependance must be upon Him.

I told them, they had as good knock me in head as starve me to death.

God did not give them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance. If we had been God would have found out a way for the English to have passed this river,

with the blessing of God it cured me also

. I then remembered how careless I had been of God’s holy time; how many Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evilly I had walked in God’s sight

but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fai

One of these days, when that diary is found, when the hand that penned it shall be dust, with what amazement and remorse will many a husband or father exclaim, I never knew my wife or my child until this moment.

“matrophobia” or the fear of becoming one’s mother

that a woman creates her identity by choosing her clothes, that she creates her history by choosing her man.

has come to be a kind of domestic accomplishment

As we see in this analysis, one of the problems of the feminist critique is that it is male-oriented. If we study stereotypes of women, the sexism of male critics, and the limited roles women play in literary history, we are not learning what women have felt and experienced, but only what men have thought women should be.

by the male code of paternity, money, and legal contract.

fears that feminist analysis has been coopted by academia

n women’s fiction

The absence of a clearly articulated theory makes feminist criticism perpetually vulnerable to such attacks, and not even feminist critics seem to agree what it is that they mean to profess and defend.

another piece of women’s’ lib propaganda masquerading as literary criticism

while the men stand gossiping in the sun, she is inside hard at work

wondering why femininity requires brainwork

Localization of problems prevents people seeing their problems as part oflarger picture. We can see this in social policy today (in our society): there are projects to help thisestate and that estate but no project to address the poverty of the poor collectively.

Problem-posing education is an approach to education where teacher and student approach aproblem together.

In this approach to education the teacher-studentteaches the student-teachers.

Theteacher always has knowledge. His knowledge is absolute

banking education fosters passivity in students by negating the spirit of inquiry

n banking education the teacher 'knows', because he or she has received the officially sanctionedcurriculum knowledge which is then imparted as a stale, static narrative to the students.

can be deposited (like deposits in a bank)

a consciousness of being oppressed so they act to change this

Accordingly, the oppressed are emotionallydependent."

'Class membership'

A person who does not think(and think critically) about social and political reality but simply accepts it is thereby participating inthe world in a way which has been organised for him by others.

As we will see later this theory of the 'dual-nature'of the peasants creates the possibility of a kind of authoritarian outlook. In theory it creates thepossibility that peasants who disagree with the revolutionary ideas can be dismissed as having'internalised the oppressor'

His particular concern is with thestate of consciousness of the oppressed class

that no violence should be offered to his no violence

They leade a life, being voyde of care, which torments the mindes of fo hUg v/yd of many Chriftians

that I would let his son be brought up in my not savage house, that he might be taught to read in that book

Kytan

hey are not altogether without the knowledge of God (historically.

It pleased God to keep me a long time without a child, which was a great grief to me, and cost mee many prayers and tears before I obtained one

I besought the Lord, and confessed my Pride and Vanity and he was entreated of me, and again restored me

Millions will testify that this is true.

The World's the Theater where she did act.

And trophies to thy name erect Which wearing time shall ne'er deject.

One Flesh was call'd, who had her eye On worldly wealth and vanity; The other Spirit, who did rear Her thoughts unto a higher sphere.

rubbing off a spot

For such despite they cast on female wits, If what I do prove well, it won't advance-- They'll say it was stolen, or else it was by chance.

Who says my hand a needle better fits.

Ideology is not in the first place a set of doctrines; it signifies the way men live out their roles in class-society, the values, ideas and images which tie them to their social functions and so prevent them from a true knowledge of society as a whole.

gladly pounced on

So our liking for Greek art is a nostalgic lapse back into childhood

The Greeks were normal children.

Marxism and literary criticism 6

men are not free to choose their social relations; they are constrained into them by material necessity

Literary works are not mysteriously inspired, or explicable simply in terms of their authors' psychology. They are forms of perception, particular ways of seeing the world; and as such they have a relation to that dominant way of seeing the world which is the 'social mentality' or ideology of an age.

their material life

It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

Consciousness does not determine life: life determines consciousness.

Most students of literature are taught otherwise: the greatest art is that which timelessly transcends its historical conditions.

Art and literature were part of the very air Marx breathed

Marxism is a scientific theory of human societies and of the practice of transforming them

ye law, Levit: 20. 15

confirmed it at his execution.

Horrible [249] it is to mention, but ye truth of ye historie requires it

And yet all this could not suppress ye breaking out of sundrie notorious sins, (as this year, besids other, gives us too many sad presidents and instances,) espetially drunkennes and unclainnes; not only incontinencie betweene persons unmaried, for which many both men & women have been punished sharply enough, but some maried persons allso.

prays therof to God

But againe when they considered, how much wrong they had received from the Pequents, and what an oppertunitie they now had by ye help of ye English

Plimoth

May-polle to be cutt downe

(like so many fairies, or furies rather,)

If any did unjustly warr against him, they would aide him; if any did warr against them, he should aide them.

With whom, after frendly entertainment, & some gifts given him, they made a peace with him (which hath now continued this 24. years) in these terms.

Samaset;

Indians

And yet the Lord so upheld these persons

Let them confess before ye Lord his loving kindnes, and his wonderfull works before ye sons of men.

from all ye civill parts of ye world

sharp & violent, & subjecte to cruell & feirce stormes, deangerous to travill to known places

God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof

And I may not omite hear a spetiall worke of Gods providence.

Preface

his sword taken from him.

Out of the big beams

wanted all the young girls to be brought to him when they were about thirteen or fourteen years old. They had to live with the priest. He told the people they would become better women if they lived with him for about three years.

priest,

These places are called Puwa-kiki, cave places.

In that way their own religion was altogether wiped out, because they were not allowed to worship in their own way.

He did not like the Kachinas and he destroyed the altars and the customs. He called it idol worship and burned up all the ceremonial things in the plaza.

told the people that they had much more power than all their chiefs

When the Spaniards came, the Hopi thought that they were the ones they were looking for–their white brother, the Bahana, their savior.

and shedding my blood for God

Thus, after God, the only succor and relief that we have rests with your reverence and in your diligence

much was made of them

in our service

for if they would return to obedience to his Majesty they would be pardoned;

I sent some soldiers to summon him and tell him on my behalf that he could come to see me in entire safety

Tanos and Pecos might endanger the person of the reverend father custodian, I wrote to him to set out at once for the villa, not feeling reassured even with the escort which the lieutenant took, at my orders, but when they arrived with the letter they found that the Indians had already killed the said father custodian; Father Fray Domingo de Vera; Father Fray Manuel Tinoco, the minister guardian of San Marcos, who was there; and Father Fray Fernando de Velasco, guardian of Los Pecos, near the pueblo of Galisteo, he having escaped that far from the fury of the Pecos.

and so great, that my efforts were of little avail.

miserable kingdom

plot for a general uprising of the Christian Indians was being formed and was spreading rapidly.

_communication occurs within situations and that to be in a situation is already to be in possession of (or to be possessed by) a structure of assumptions, of practices under-stood to be relevant in relation to purposes and goals that are already in place; and it is within the assumption of tl~se pur-poses and goals that any utterance is immediately heard

In short

h.e stability of the text is an illusion

meaning but an utterance whose already assigned meaning has been found to be inappropriate.

he problem of how meaning is determined is only a problem if there is a point at which its determination has not yet been made, and I am saying that there is no such point.

That islJ! is impossible even to think 7'-of a sentence independently of a context, and when we are asked to consider a sentence for which no context has been specified. we will automatica1ly hear it in the context in which it has been most often encountered

nut the "happiness

"institutional nesting"

This does not mean that there is no way to discriminate between the meanings an utterance will have in different situations, but that the discrimination will already have been made by virtue of our being in a situation (we are never not in one) and that in another situation the discrimina-tion will a]so have already been made, but differently.

"I think I left my text in this class; have yon seen it?" ·we would then have an "Is there a text in this class?":i and the possibility, feared by the defenders of the normative and determinate, of an endless succession of numbers, that is, of a world in which every utter-ance has an infinite plurality of meanings.

indeed, in the course of this essay I will be arguing that unin-telligibility, in the strict or pure sense, is an impossibility

hat bureaucratic matters must be attended to before instruction begins

It is just that .these norms are not embedded in the language (where they may be read out by anyone with sufficiently clear, that is. unbiased, eyes) but in-here in an institutional structure within which one hears utter-ances as already organized with reference to certain assumed purposes and goals.

"I mean in this class do we believe in poems and things, or is it just us?"

...The day after I overtook four [Christians] on horseback, who were astonished at the sight of me, so strangely habited as I was, and in company with Indians.* They stood staring at me a length of time, so confounded that they neither hailed me nor drew near to make an inquiry...

a land very fertile and beautiful, abounding in springs and streams, the hamlets deserted and burned, the people thin and weak

They are a timid and dejected people...

After they have fought, or had out their dispute, they take their dwell- ings and go into the woods, living apart from each other until their heat has subsided.

the Indians leave him to perish, unless it be a son or a brother; him they will assist, even to carrying on their back

otherwise those who lived would be delicate having httle strength.

The children are suckled until the age of twelve years, when they are old enough to get sup- port for themselves

mercy of God

This was all the protection I had against cold, while walking naked as I was born

in a plight so different from what it was before, and so extraordinary, they were alarmed and turned back.

After the provisions and clothes had been taken in, not over a span of the gunwales remained above water ; and more than this, the boats were so crowded that we could not move : so much can necessity do, which drove us to hazard our hves in this manner, running into a turbu- lent sea, not a single one who went, having a know- ledge of navigation.

persons of gentle condition

They are of admirable proportions, very spare and of great activity and strength. The bows they use are as thick as the arm, of eleven or twelve palms in length, which they will discharge at two hundred paces with so great pre- cision that they miss nothing.

They drove their arrows with such eiFect that they wounded many men and horses, and before we got through the lake they took our guide.

We inquired of the cacique we kept and the natives we brought with us,

in peace to us

The lakes in the country of Apalachen are much larger than those we found before coming there.

for some persons difficult to believe, nevertheless they may without hesitation credit me as strictly faithful

attempted to adapt

The danger is that the transactional view may be misunderstood as focusing too narrowly on "the mind" of the reader isolated from anything outside himself

The concept of the poem as the experience shaped by the reader under the guidance of the text shocks those who succumb to the tendency to assume that a name, a title, must point to a thing, an entity, an object. But when we try to think of what a title—Hamlet, say, or Moby Dick—might refer to apart from a reader, whether the [13] author himself or another, "the work" disappears.

the poem" and "the text,

We cannot simply look at the text and predict the poem.

aware of the need for another approach

But for most readers, the third line, with its reference to the sun, created the necessity for a revision of the tentative response to the first two lines. In comment after comment, there occurs a phrase such as "on second thought", "a second look," "another idea." One reader spells out the problem: "The third line seems most confusing. If I stick to my theory of producer talking to backers it really makes no sense."

Some of the readers became involved with ideas called up by the first two lines, and neglected the rest:

One writes, "Upon reading . . . the first time, I couldn't make any sense out of it."

Knowing the author and prior acquaintance with his work may speed up the process, but l was interested in what happens when the reader has to start from scratch with the text on the page.

of ours, "The Intentional Fallacy" (The Sewanee Review, Summer, 1946), it may be relevant to assert at this point that we believe ourselves to be exploring two roads which have seemed to offer conveni ent detours around the acknowledged and usually feared ob stacles to objective criticism, both of which, however, have actually led away from criticism and from poetry. The In

which, as I have already said, is half of a perfect sphere.