Nestchick

  The function of literary theory in academia is often purported to be one of uncovering and decoding messages that were already present within culture in order to gain a clearer understanding of semiotic codes. While this is a cause of noble intent, there sometimes is an interpretive chasm between the intellegesia and the rest of society. What becomes at issue is the validity of academic readings of texts (which may eloquently and convincingly argue about what the dynamics of works of art are and how they influence culture) and the interpretation of texts by those who are actually engaged in such a cultural process. Teresa De Lauretis' book Technologies of Gender includes an essay entitled "The Rhetoric of Violence" in which she quotes Pierce that applies to this very topic: "...immediate object's relation to the representamem is established by the interpretant, which is itself another sign, 'perhaps a more developed sign'. Thus, in a process of unlimite...