Theories/Theory of Discourse and Literary Studies II

Abstract

In my contribution, which is the second part of my article on theories of discourse in literary studies, I first discuss two theoretical approaches to discourse based on Foucault: a semiotic variant of discourse analysis, which was developed by Jürgen Link and Ursula Link-Heer, and a more socio-historical analysis of social discourse by Marc Angenot, which is critical of ideology and draws inspiration also from Gramsci and Bakhtin, among others. Both approaches limit the autonomy of literature and the author, emphasizing the mediated nature of literature; however, Link’s theory of inter-discourse highlights the constitution and materiality of literature, and is less critical of ideology. On the other hand, Angenot also analyses discursive practices and the aspects of the system theory of literature, while Link remains within a cognitivist conceptualization of discourse. – The rest of the article deals with the reception of theories of discourse in Slovenia. This has been very modest, partly because of the long dominance of the paradigm of immanentist literary criticism and relatively traditional models of literary history; the other reason could be the prevalent acceptance of two methods – comparative literary-historical, and even more so the methods of intellectual history – which emphasizes philosophical, rather than social contexts. Central to my discussion is an article by Marko Juvan, “Od literarne teorije k teoriji literarnega diskurza: fragmenti za uvod” (“From Literary Theory to a Theory of Literary Discourse: Introductory Fragments«) (2003). His outline of a renovation of literary theory, which is at the same time a proposal for a theory of literary discourse, is interdisciplinary and, inevitably, eclectic, but closer to semiotics than genealogy, in the Foucauldian sense, or a critique of ideology. Its theoretical framework is conceived as a complement to the theory of discourse and discourse analysis, with the history of reception (Wirkungsgeschichte) and their indispensable supplement, which is generally humanistic in origin: an explanation of specifics and an advocacy of the uniqueness of literature.