LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:11 November 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Biotext: A New Perspective

Roghayeh Farsi, Ph.D.
Neyshabur University, Iran

Abstract

Literary criticism has always concerned itself with the triangle of text, context, and author/reader. Such triangulation has led to the emergence of a wide variety of literary approaches, each one of which has paradoxically had some limitations. The present article aims at introducing a new perspective which encompasses all other approaches without falling in the trap of their reductionism. The initiator of this new notion is J. S. Anand, the living Indian poet.

This paper not only introduces Anand’s theory of biotext as the virtual realm of any literary text but it also elucidates Anand’s biotext by modeling it after Gilles Deleuze’s postmodern theories on time, hence interdisciplinarity between literary criticism and philosophy. Here, a parallel is drawn between the syntheses of time (past, present, future) and those of text, context, and author/reader. Calling biotext as the virtual Third Space is regarded as Anand’s attempt to postcolonialize his new perspective, following Homi K. Bhabha.

Key words:biotext, synthesis, Anand, Deleuze, Bhabha

Introduction

History of literary criticism evinces critics’ views have not transcended the triangle of text, context, and writer. With each approach, there has been a tilt toward either one or two of these elements. Roland Barthes’s revolutionary announcement of death of the author and birth of the reader in text substituted author with reader, hence reader-response approach. The postmodern re-turn to the context and its impacts on text production and interpretation have rendered Formalists’ stress on the autonomy of text outdated. Such triangulation has restricted the critics’ scope of vision and made their lenses impervious to criticism. Total eradication of the author is as just reductive as the sole emphasis on text or context.

J. S. Anand, in a metacritical approach, introduces the new and conducive notion of biotext in an attempt to fill in the gaps of all such perspectives. He defines biotext as the all-inclusive, protean, and virtual Space which is shared by, but not restricted to any one of, text, context, and author/reader. Following his postcolonial predecessor, Homi K. Bhabha, Anand calls biotext as the Third Space whose synthetic structure de-colonizes the monopoly of either element in the triangle.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Roghayeh Farsi, Ph.D.
Neyshabur University
Iran
farsiroghayeh1956@gmail.com
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