Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 35, No. 297.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2021-10-13 15:53:03+00:00
From: David Hoover <david.hoover@nyu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 35.293: A New Book, a Confirmation, and a Refutation
Yes, Joris, I am sure you are right that Barthes was thinking mainly of
meaning. But those of us concerned intimately with the individuality,
distinctiveness, and originality of literary texts tend to be sensitive to
some of the excesses of Barthes's followers. Many literary scholars seem to
think that Barthes and Foucault have refuted the idea that authorship
attribution and stylistics are even possible.
It seems ironic that the social construction of the self can be interpreted
in this way, when, on the contrary, the social construction of the self
guarantees that each self is as unique as each idiolect. Similarly, it
seems quite natural that a text that is a tissue of unoriginal quotations
can itself be utterly original and distinctive.
--
David L. Hoover, Professor of English, NYU
212-998-8832 244 Greene Street, Room 409
http://wp.nyu.edu/davidlhoover
"They had the Nos. of the rain bow and the Power of the air all
workit out with counting which is how they got boats in the air
and picters on the wind. Counting clevverness is what it wer."
-- Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker
On Sun, Oct 10, 2021 at 2:09 AM Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 35, No. 293.
> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> Hosted by DH-Cologne
> Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
> Date: 2021-10-09 08:23:46+00:00
> From: Joris van Zundert <joris.van.zundert@huygens.knaw.nl>
> Subject: Re: A New Book, a Confirmation, and a Refutation
>
> Dear David,
>
> I think Barthes wasn't talking about exact matches though, but more about
> the various tissues of meaning? ;-) Google's not very good yet at matching
> meaning.
>
> Excellent to hear about the book though. I won't pirate it, unless that
> flatters you more than buying the paid version.
>
> Best
> --Joris
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Oct 2021 at 08:44, Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:
>
> > Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 35, No. 291.
> > Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> > Hosted by DH-Cologne
> >
> > Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
> >
> [...]
> > [2] From: David Hoover <david.hoover@nyu.edu>
> > Subject: A New Book, a Confirmation, and a Refutation (34)
> >
> >
> >
> [...]
> >
> --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Date: 2021-10-08 16:32:26+00:00
> > From: David Hoover <david.hoover@nyu.edu>
> > Subject: A New Book, a Confirmation, and a Refutation
> >
> > I announce here my most recent book, *Modes of Composition and the
> > Durability of Style in Literature,* Routledge, 2021.
> >
> >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.routledge.com_Modes-2
Dof-2DComposition-2Dand-2Dthe-2DDurability-2Dof-2DStyle-2Din-2D&d=DwIDaQ&c=slrrB
7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=usjbsdLrgTTS5JTkDMZQoQ&m=JmEhXSwzM60u8bfzHCJOiMbZK_IOpDYSl7y
A2eHWCmg&s=WYZCE2iZOOa6Ylegsrc3nWKMPfVMbZEA7lraoV37FFg&e=
> Literature/Hoover/p/book/9780367366704
> >
> > I was recently able to confirm and refute a claim I made in the book
> > simultaneously. In a discussion of Barthes' "The Death of the Author" in
> > the book, I quote from his provocative essay, in which he claims:
> >
> > We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a
> single
> > “theological” meaning (the “message” of the Author-God), but is a space
> > of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kinds of
> > writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations,
> > resulting from the thousand sources of culture.
> >
> > I point out that the idea that a text is a tissue of un-original
> citations
> > is problematic because a web search for a string of eight words from
> almost
> > any novel returns only hits to that novel. Yet, a search for a string of
> > eight words from my own book (before it was published) returned no hits
> at
> > all. The phrase from my book was “will almost certainly return no hits at
> > all.” Interestingly enough, a current search for my eight-word phrase
> > produces hits to a Google Books preview of my book and to more than
> twenty
> > pirated copies of my book.
> >
> > I guess I should be flattered?
> >
> > --
> > David L. Hoover, Professor of English, NYU
> > 212-998-8832 244 Greene Street, Room 409
> > http://wp.nyu.edu/davidlhoover
> >
> > "They had the Nos. of the rain bow and the Power of the air all
> > workit out with counting which is how they got boats in the air
> > and picters on the wind. Counting clevverness is what it wer."
> > -- Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker
>
> --
> Drs. Joris J. van Zundert
> Researcher & Developer in Humanities Computing
> Dept. of Literary Studies
> Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands
> Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
> joris.van.zundert@huygens.knaw.nl
> @jorisvanzundert
> +31624461051
> --
> Jack Sparrow: I thought you were supposed to keep to the code.
> Mr. Gibbs: We figured they were more actual guidelines.
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