Terms in "The Social Construction of Nature"

To help you with the reading in case you're unfamiliar with all the fancy-schmancy theoretical jargon (which English majors will learn if/when you take 3084):

Dialogic
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogic

"The dialogic work carries on a continual dialogue with other works of literature and other authors. It does not merely answer, correct, silence, or extend a previous work, but informs and is continually informed by the previous work. Dialogic literature is in communication with multiple works. This is not merely a matter of influence, for the dialogue extends in both directions, and the previous work of literature is as altered by the dialogue as the present one is."

"The term 'dialogic', however, does not just apply to literature. For Bakhtin, all language - indeed, all thought - appeared dialogic. This means that everything anybody ever says always exists in response to things that have been said before and in anticipation of things that will be said in response. We never, in other words, speak in a vacuum. As a result, all language (and the ideas which language contains and communicates) is dynamic, relational and engaged in a process of endless redescriptions of the world."

[Speaking of Wikipedia, it in itself is a "dialogic phenomenon," and it refers to itself as such in this article.]

Poststructuralism
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poststructuralism

"Post-structuralists hold that the concept of "self" as a singular and coherent entity is a fictional construct. Instead, an individual comprises conflicting tensions and knowledge claims (e.g. gender, class, profession, etc.). Therefore, to properly study a text the reader must understand how the work is related to his own personal concept of self. This self-perception plays a critical role in one's interpretation of meaning."

"In the post-structuralist approach to textual analysis, the reader replaces the author as the primary subject of inquiry. This displacement is often referred to as the "destabilizing" or "decentering" of the author, though it has its greatest effect on the text itself. Without a central fixation on the author, and disregarding an essentialist reading of the content, post-structuralists examine other sources for meaning (e.g. readers, cultural norms, other literature, etc.). These alternative sources are never authoritative, and promise no consistency."

Semiology
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

"Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped in sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood. Semioticians also sometimes examine how organisms make predictions about and adapt to their semiotic niche in the world (see semiosis). Semiotics theorises at a general level about signs, while the study of the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or zoosemiosis."

Grand narrative
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_narrative

"In critical theory, and particularly postmodernism, a metanarrative (sometimes master- or grand narrative) "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience".[1] The prefix meta means "beyond" and is here used to mean "about", and a narrative is a story. Therefore, a metanarrative is a story about a story.
The term is best known for its use by Jean-François Lyotard in the following quotation: "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives".[2] By this, Lyotard meant that the postmodern condition is characterized by an increasingly widespread skepticism toward metanarratives, such as the unique status of the individual, the boundedness of information, and the march of progress, that are thought to have given order and meaning to Western thought during modernity."

"A metanarrative can include any grand, all-encompassing story, classic text, or archetypal account of the historical record. They can also provide a framework upon which an individual's own experiences and thoughts may be ordered. These grand, all-encompassing stories are typically characterised by some form of 'transcendent and universal truth' in addition to an evolutionary tale of human existence (a story with a beginning, middle and an end)."

Examples of metanarratives associated with systems of belief or ideologies (paraphrased from Wikipedia article):

-Christian belief in the innately sinful nature of the human condition and the redemption and eternal life offered by the Crucifixion, which becomes humanity's teleological end.
-Enlightenment belief that rational thought coupled with scientific reasoning leads to moral conclusions.
-Freudian belief that human history is a narrative of the repression of sexual urges (libido).
-Meritocrats' (Republicans?) belief that all who work hard will succeed.

[p.s. anyone know how i can make the font smaller???]