Chapter 6
Postmodern Impact:
Literature
Discussion Guide for Literature
Review the chart on p. 87. Focus on the section under the heading "grammatical-historical
approach."
- Think about the Bible as a text. What are the main questions we ask
of a biblical passage to get at its meaning.
- Why do we approach the Bible this way? Isn't it because we think that
if we ask questions about the author, audience and the context of a
passage, we can discover the author's intent and therefore the true
meaning of the text? But postmodernists step in at this point and say
that we're operating from a faulty paradigm. They say our assumptions
about author, text and reader are wrong. Again review the chart on p.
87. This time focus on the column under Let's explore this a bit further.
The Author
- Why do postmodernists argue that the author doesn't stand over the
text as an authority?
- Do you think that postmodernists have some important insight when
they say that the authors' writing reflects the biases, values and beliefs
of their culture? What examples come to mind? How might this effect
the way we view scripture?
The Text
One of the big problems many postmodernists have with texts is that
they "privilege" certain values and ideas over others. Since
values and truth claims are social constructs, texts that are "privileged"
(accepted into the social and literary canon) perpetuate views that
keep power for the dominant culture while marginalizing minority cultures.
- Is this viewpoint familiar to you? Where have you come into contact
with it? Do you think this outlook perpetuates cynicism? How so?
- How might the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution be
viewed in terms of privileging certain values that perpetuate power
at the expense of minority cultures?
The Reader
One of the tools postmodernists use to wrestle authority out of the
text and into the reader is "deconstruction." Deconstruction
purges texts of socially constructed hierarchies, contradictions and
identifies things excluded from the text.
- Why is being "logocentric" such a concern for deconstruction?
What does this mean?
- How does using deconstruction allow the reader to be an authority
over the text?
- Postmodernists say that in the final analysis, no one has final authority
over the text. Why is this? What is the consequence of this view?
Facilitator's Guide for Literature
Review the chart on p. ___. Focus on the section under the heading
"grammatical-historical approach."
- Think about the Bible as a text. What are the main questions we ask
of a biblical passage to get at its meaning.
Consider questions like:
- Who is the author?
- Who was the original audience?
- What historical factors about the audience might be important in
understanding the passage?
- What is the broader context of the passage being studied?
- What words or concepts in the passage relate to central biblical
teachings
- Why do we approach the Bible this way? Isn't it because we think that
if we ask questions about the author, audience and the context of a
passage, we can discover the author's intent and therefore the true
meaning of the text? But postmodernists step in at this point and say
that we're operating from a faulty paradigm. They say our assumptions
about author, text and reader are wrong. Again review the chart on p.
___. This time focus on the column under Let's explore this a bit further.
The Author
- Why do postmodernists argue that the author doesn't stand over the
text as an authority?
- For the discussion leader: Because authors are merely an expression
of the cultural context that shapes their thought, values and beliefs.
So there is nothing original being stated in the text. The text is merely
an expression of the author's social reality. And that reality may or
may not be relevant to the reader.
- Do you think that postmodernists have some important insight when
they say that the authors' writing reflects the biases, values and beliefs
of their culture? What examples come to mind? How might this effect
the way we view scripture?
The Text
One of the big problems many postmodernists have with texts is that
they "privilege" certain values and ideas over others. Since
values and truth claims are social constructs, texts that are "privileged"
(accepted into the social and literary canon) perpetuate views that
keep power for the dominant culture while marginalizing minority cultures.
- Is this viewpoint familiar to you? Where have you come into contact
with it? Do you think this outlook perpetuates cynicism? How so?
- How might the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution be
viewed in terms of privileging certain values that perpetuate power
at the expense of minority cultures?
- Property rights included ownership of human slaves. "One man,
one vote," meant "One man, but not one woman."
- Rights under the constitution only applied to citizens, not to Native
Americans.
- But at the extreme, see revisionist judges who feel we have to read
the constitution as it would be understood today, not then. Under this
premise they invent new meanings never considered by the framers.
The Reader
One of the tools postmodernists use to wrestle authority out of the
text and into the reader is "deconstruction." Deconstruction
purges texts of socially constructed hierarchies, contradictions and
identifies things excluded from the text.
- Why is being "logocentric" such a concern for deconstruction?
What does this mean?
- People are logocentric when they believe there are controlling ideas
that are objectively true. People who favor one point of view as the
"right" one are said to be logocentric by postmodernists.
- How does using deconstruction allow the reader to be an authority
over the text?
- The reader discerns what antitheses were at work in the original
writing. The reader determines what the author's real motives were,
and why he believed as he did.
- Postmodernists say that in the final analysis, no one has final authority
over the text. Why is this? What is the consequence of this view?
- They claim that the individual only has authority over what the text
means to him or her, not to what it might mean to others.
- Texts' meanings can change depending on the reader.
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