Return to Saussure

  Introduction Jane Austen's opening line from "Pride and Prejudice," "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife," is celebrated for its craftsmanship and effectiveness. Austen condenses key themes and character motivations into a single sentence, showcasing her ability to convey complex ideas with elegant simplicity. Acting as a teaser, it entices readers to explore further, eager to uncover the story's intricacies. Ferdinand de Saussure's introductory statement, "I have taken it as an obvious truth, that the link between the sign and the idea represented, is radically arbitrary," to his lecture on Absolute and Relative Arbitrariness in language echoes the celebrated opening lines of "Pride and Prejudice" in several respects. Similar to Austen's famous line, Saussure's assertion —"I have taken it as an obvious truth"— immediately captur...

And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled, Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled, Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair— Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there! Beyond the Paw Prints: Derrida's Claws and Macavity's Mischief Jacques Derrida introduced the concept of 'Double Reading' in 'Of Grammatology,' specifically in the essay titled 'The Exorbitant: Question of Method,' which serves as a foundational text for his reading methodology (Bradley 2008). One of the core principles of Double Reading is to engage with a text in a manner that meticulously reproduces, to the best extent possible, what the author intended when creating it. This approach aligns with traditional methods of literary analysis where the primary goal is to uncover the author's original meaning and intent. However, this procedure does not stop at the surface-level comprehension of a...