I found Pierre
Macherey, from “A Theory of Literary Production (1987)” to be extremely
challenging to read. One of the first things I highlighted comes at the very
beginning of the text, when Macherey writes, “The recognition of the area of
shadow in or around the work is the initial moment of criticism”(pg. 15). I
find this quote to be extremely complex and thought provoking. I interpreted
the shadow being the gaps, which Barthes talked about in our last reading. I am
however a little confused about what exactly the criticism means. One thought I
had was that as we read a text the gaps that we will fill allows us to see how
successful the writer is in communicating his message.
What leads up to this quote implies that no text is
complete, that there can always be something else said. Macherey writes, “For
there to be a critical discourse which is more than a superficial and futile reprise of the work, the speech stored
in the book must be incomplete; because it has not said everything, there
remains the possibility of saying something else, after another fashion”(pg.
15). I love the idea that no work is finished. There is always a response to
language and something else can always be said.
This concept began to make sense until I read further and
got to the part about silence. Macherey write, “Silence reveals speech- unless
it is speech that reveals the silence” (pg. 17). He is making the point that we
are trying to unravel the silence because the silence is what produces more
dialogue but I feel as if this idea is then contradicting what he says in the
beginning about the possibility about there always being something more to be
said.
One song that automatically comes to my mind when talking
about silence and the idea of revealing the silence is “The Sound of Silence”
by Simon & Garfunkel.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4
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