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Read Roland Barthes, 'Death of the Author' in his collection of essays, Mythologies. Here you'll find the origin (at least in poststructuralist theory) of the word 'text' versus book.

According to Barthes, readers create texts. Texts are entirely original and change with each reader. Readers produce a text and create an idea of an author. Authors create identical works while readers create subjective analysis and write about the work--creating texts. The great myth of authorship= the book. Arguing for the death of the author calls for the birth of the reader--and the birth of interchanging & reinvented texts as opposed to authority and books.

2007-06-13 10:45:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

That depends on the context.

In simple terms, as others have pointed out, a "text" would be a piece of writing. Books, essays, poems, plays, transcripts of lectures, articles, etc., are all texts.

Note that the word "text" shares the same etymology as "textile"-- the connotation here is that a text is woven, many-stranded piece, with gaps and holes between the strands, and threads that might come out if you pull on them.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the oft-quoted (but rarely properly understood) statement by Jacques Derrida, that "there is nothing outside the text" does *not* imply that reality is merely a "text" in the sense described above. But that's a matter for a different question....

2007-06-13 15:09:49 · answer #2 · answered by Michael_Dorfman 3 · 0 0

Near as I can reckon, 'text' is currently being employed by the avant-garde intelligentsia as a term that deems the inkspots on the page 'mere signal'. This makes it possible for them (those cognoscenti) to deal with some problems of meaning, and some problems of interpretation immediately, and it (perhaps not entirely coincidentally) throws the whole traditional schema of 'natural reading' out the window.

When you see the term 'text,' you're dealing with a thinker for whom the utterance " I write what I think" is utterly rejected. The 'text' (what words you see) is reduced to mere component of a 'narrative' (the constellation of understandings the writer (a more or less witting participant in a 'narrative') had in the instant of writing). The establishment of the truth value of the 'text' is therefore transferred absolutely to the interpreter; it becomes impossible for a writer to win credit--even with simple factual utterance, except insofar as the interpreter ALLOWS the writer's (interpreter-imputed) 'narrative' or 'metanarrative'. The truth value of a 'text' cannot be properly evaluated without full understanding of the 'narrative' or 'metanarrative' of which it is part. Thus, "I have a large blue tick bloodhound that I put out to stud" becomes, variously, a declaration for sexism, a propagandistic broadside in support of Jeffersonian democracy, etc.

The short answer to your question is, "Run away swiftly from people who use 'text' a lot." They don't think you know what you mean to say.

I'm not especially happy with the 'text' notion, despite that I recognize its theoretical value. It's my opinion that a recipe for chicken soup CAN be accepted at face value; one need not take into consideration the power relationships the author is involved in to take the fullest meaning from that 'text.'

I don't wish to give the impression that such people are lightweights. They ain't--but I think many of them have wandered accidentally up their own intellectual butts

2007-06-13 13:18:24 · answer #3 · answered by skumpfsklub 6 · 1 1

There's no mystery about it. Long before the invention of SMS, a text was something in print or writing. OED says it is the wording of anything written or printed. So what I have just typed is a text.

2007-06-13 11:55:23 · answer #4 · answered by cymry3jones 7 · 0 0

words, like a book
if your doing critical theory, i guess your doing arts, there's a lot of texts.

2007-06-13 11:43:08 · answer #5 · answered by Mystical Mamba 6 · 0 0

a "text" is a format in computer, usually with the alphabet, but numbers can also be read by the computer as "text", meaning calculations cannot be done. You can paste, cut, etc.

2007-06-13 11:44:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

"Text" usually refers to another written work that the author you're reading refers to, or cites, or something written by another person. Essentially, it's a written piece.

2007-06-13 11:42:31 · answer #7 · answered by znation 2 · 0 0

It could be a paragraph or a short story or an essay or an entire book.

2007-06-13 20:33:11 · answer #8 · answered by Hot Coco Puff 7 · 0 0

Its another written piece, and essay or a book etc.

2007-06-13 11:57:38 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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