Me-an-ing Mac-hi-nas

Annotations and the Syntax of Meanings

In his essay, “The Case for Literature,” Gao Xingjian speaks to the solitary nature of writing: “It can be said that talking to oneself is the starting point for literature and that using language to communicate is secondary.” Writing and consciousness (both typically thought to be inner phenomena) are intimately entwined; indeed, “literature allows a person to preserve a human consciousness.” Yet this same author tells us: “Literature is only actualised and of interest at that moment in time when the writer writes it and the reader reads it.” (Nobel Lecture)

In our group project, we played with the paradox of the simultaneously inward and outward-facing qualities of literature. We established a collaborative process which explored how it is possible to encounter one another’s texts in a way which does not seek to “tame” them, in the way that Susan Sontag discusses in her essay, “Against Interpretation.” (8)  Rather we created an intertextual dialogue. The Scalar Platform suggested our method. We each created texts then wrote annotations – both academic and personal, using text, image and sound – for each other’s work. We also wanted to play with the idea of the rhizome offered by Deleuze and Guattari which “ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains …” (38) Scalar, with its possibility for multiple pathways, leant itself to this endeavour.
           
Psychologist and philosopher Lev Vygotsky offers a way of thinking about “talking to oneself” and “talking to others” in his chapter, “Thought and Word,” a fascinating exploration of language and concept development, and its relationship literature. At the risk of gross oversimplification: he differs from the better-known Piaget in crediting community and culture with a greater role in child development. “Behind words,” Vygotsky writes, “there is the independent grammar of thought, the syntax of word meaning. The simplest utterance, far from reflecting a constant, rigid correspondence between sound and meaning, is really a process.” (222) In our annotations we sought to go behind each other’s words and work at the level of this syntax, thus contributing to the process of shared meaning-making. Our initial writings were deliberately personal and embedded in a single, authorial point of view, and so were the responses. It will be up to the reader to determine what new meanings are created, and we hope our performance will add another dimension to the experience.

In “Rethinking Recognition,” Nancy Fraser discusses the limits of the “politics of recognition,” or the “identity model,” based on the Hegelian idea of dialogically constituted identity. (109) Fraser is concerned that identity politics have eclipsed the need for economic justice, and running counter to its Hegelian premisses. (112) I wondered if some of the issues Fraser raised in her essay would come up, given that we are a mixed group, representing different genders, ages, mother-tongues, cultural and economic backgrounds. Such discussions did not rise to the top, perhaps because we were so intent upon establishing our group process and creating a performance. Given more time, our process could continue with another layer of associations, or written or spoken reflections on why we chose these associations and what they mean. Indeed, working in this way might become an exercise for establishing and deepening understanding within a mixed group which wants to collaborate closely.
 
                                                                                      Works Cited

Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Pleateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: Univ. of
     Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, 2005. 3-26. 501-516. ProjectLamar. Web. 5 December 2015.
 
Fraser, Nancy. "Rethinking Recognition." New Left Review 3 (2000): 107-120. 22 November 2015.
 
Gao Xingjian – “Nobel Lecture: The Case for Literature". Trans. Mabel Lee.Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 5 Dec 2015.
 
Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation, and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966. Print.
 
Vygotsky, Lev. Thought and Language. Trans. Alex Kozulin. 1986. Cambridge and London: MIT Press. 1997.