1. Phenomenology, Linguistics, and Popular Literature
Janice A. Radway
Phenomenology, Linguistics, and Popular Literature

2. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of perception
“Being-in-the-world”
Pre-conscious experience Language Conscious “Language then, for Merleau-Pointy, is not a discrete system cut off from all other non-linguistic knowledge of the world, but rather a medium in which experiential knowledge or pre-conscious experience is given conscious existence by a speaking subject.”
Langage Parle: The System
Langage Parlant: The temporal individual act
Real Speech act

3. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Linguistic Competence: Using the langage parle to speak
meaningfully and find meaning in what others say.
Two kinds of speech:
Empirical Speech: Obeying the rules of the linguistic system using words as if they have only one absolute meaning.
Creative Speech: Breaking the rules of the linguistic system
creating new meaning by deformation.

4. The Literary System
Literature as a system with varying levels of organisation (plot organisation etc.)
Generic Conventions  reader expectations
Literary competence: ability to read and understand entirely new texts.

5. The Literary System Use of the Literary System:
Creatively: Breaking the rules new meaning: Elite Literature
Changes literary system
Empirically: Obey the rules  meet expectations: Popular Literature
Referential: reader accepts traditional meaning of texts
Literary and Liguistic Anchors: conserving both systems