Monday, August 4, 2008

A Note on the Hyper-Protected Principle

Hyper-protected cooperative principle is a basic convention that makes possible the interpretation of literature: the assumption that difficulties, apparent nonsense, digressions, and irrelevancies have a relevant function. 

Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford U Press: New York, 1997.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

wait...I thought it was when works are only named literature when a publisher/review board deems it so.
What is it?

Murk Wollagain said...

Yes, the "cooperative" part is the assumption that any utterance is meant to communicate something, and the reader/audience is positioned to make sense of that the message is (as opposed to assuming nothing is meant).

The "hyperprotected" part has to do with the utterance being called "literature" because it has been vetted in some way, either through publication, presentation by a trusted authority (e.g., teacher), or otherwise marked as worthy of being interpreted.