Ekegren - The Reading of ...

Ekegren - The Reading of Theoretical Texts, Theology, philosophy and the history of ideas

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The Reading of Theoretical Texts
Since the structuralist debates of the 1970s the field of textual analysis has largely
remained the preserve of literary theorists. Social scientists, while accepting that
observation is theory laden, have tended to take the meaning of texts as a given
and to explain differences of interpretation either in terms of ignorance or bias.
In this important contribution to methodological debate, Peter Ekegren uses
developments within literary criticism, philosophy and critical theory to reclaim
this study for the social sciences and to illuminate the ways in which different
readings of a single text are created and defended.
Peter Ekegren
is currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences,
University of Örebro, Sweden. He was previously Senior Lecturer in the Department
of Sociology, Uppsala University.
Contents
Acknowledgements
ix
Epigraph
xi
Preface
xiii
1 General introduction
1
Language and textuality 1
Critiques 3
Excursus: ‘discourse’ 10
Notes 12
2 The social sciences and criticism
14
Innocent readings 14
The understandings of the theories of value in Adam Smith and
David Ricardo 22
Guilty understanding 28
Notes 34
3 Language and criticism
37
Scientific texts/literary texts: scientific language/literary language 37
Languages 54
Saussure and his oppositions 59
Language, sign, difference and flow of meaning 62
Notes 70
4 The teleological mode of reading
80
Author and intention 81
The teleological mode of reading 89
Michael Dummett’s ‘exegesis’ 93
Notes 104
viii
Contents
5 Interpretation and the harmonious whole
108
Interpretation as repetition 108
The unity of the text 112
The fallacy of the holy whole 116
Indeterminacy 120
Notes 124
6 Holes in wholes in wholes
127
Terminologies 128
Schools of thought 131
Language practices 134
The text 142
Meaning production 152
Paradigmatic leaps 166
Concluding remarks 172
Notes 173
Bibliography
178
Index
203
Acknowledgements
This is a revised version of my PhD thesis, presented at the Department of Sociology,
Uppsala University. As is the case for most writers of PhD theses, there are a lot
of people who, in different ways, have contributed to the fulfilment of the text.
First of all, there are those who suffer and support out of all proportion. Thus:
thanks, Titti; thanks Sanna!
Taking into consideration the period of time that has elapsed since the conception
of the thesis, to name and thank all those that have been involved would amount
to a very long list. To all of you who in one way or another— socialwise,
commentwise and otherwise—have supported me, a collective and deeply felt:
thank you!
There are, however, a few colleagues to whom I feel obliged—very much
voluntarily so—to mention in a more ‘individual’ way for their direct involvement
in the thesis—and so the book—coming into fruition, from its beginning as
something altogether different to its present shape.
In particular, then, I want to express my gratitude to Thomas Coniavitis, professor
in Athens, and to the following present and former colleagues at the Department
of Sociology in Uppsala: Göran Ahrne, Martha Blomqvist, Magdalena Czaplicka,
Gunilla Dahlkild-Öhman, Hedda Ekerwald, Mats Franzén, Pablo Suarez and Lars
Udehn.
In the process of transforming the thesis into the present book, I want, first,
to thank professor Paul Hirst, Birkbeck College, London, friend and appointed
‘opponent’ at the public discussion of my dissertation. Second, the two anonymous
Routledge readers, one of whom turned out to be Mark Hobart, School of Oriental
and African Studies, University of London. His report, much appreciated and far
exceeding what one has the right to expect, included comments and advice some
if not all (time and space are two enemies in this connection) of which I have
tried to take into consideration. I want, finally, to express my thanks to Senior
Editor in Sociology Mari Shullaw and Geraldine Williams, both at Routledge, for
their patience and support.
Peter Ekegren
Uppsala and Örebro, December 1998
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