HU 520: A Review of Rafaelle Simone's "The Body of The Text"

Presuppositions regarding the term "text

Simone starts this section with an advice: "in referring to the "future of the book" one should not only consider the book container's destinies or the relationships between the book container and the users (readers), but also what might happen to the textual body which is stored in the book." (239)

Talking about the notion of open and closed text, he introduces us to such concepts as articulation and disarticulation of the body of the text.Disarticulation of the body of the text occurs when the text generated by an author is not perceived as closed to external interventions, an entity to which the author can have access only to read..." (239) Simone says that disatriculated text can be "broken apart,manipulated, and reaggregated (reassembled) without damaging the text per se or the author." (239)

Simmone highlights that present belief is that "the text should be considered a closed entity, or..it is a closed entity." (240) Reader has a right only to interpret.

In Simones opinion, people who believe this idea, "takes on ipso facto a series of the following presuppositions:

Pre-eminence of the author ("if the text is closed, it generally has an author"; "as the author generates the text, he or she is responsible for it"; "only the author is recognized as having the right to touch the text and above all to decide when the text is perfectum; when it is perfectum, "it is closed to others" and and be accessed by readers in ROM only; only the author can "change, supplement, adapt, and modify..or copy" (241) the text.

Simone also emphasized the importance of philology. According to him,"philology is the discipline which has contributed the most to creating and spreading the idea that the text is a body which cannot be penetrated except by interpretation."(240) "Philology has explicit task to define the form, the author has given to the text or closed the text.
If the authorship of the text is not important, "the text could be indefinitely modified by others." (241)

Perfection or completeness of the text:

"the text is handed over to the reader by the author in a state of perfection, or rather completeness" as a final version.
Originality of the text:

"The reader assumes that the text derives wholly or mainly from the author's ideational effort and that the author has distinguished himself or herself from the work carried out by others, even if he or he cannot disregard the existence of texts by others." (242)

Simone says that a wholly original book is treated differently by users than the book which is a result of compilation.(242) What do you think about this statement? Do you treat a wholly original book differently?

"As a result of these presuppositions the text has a body, or rather a actual habeas corpus which prevents others(apart from the author) from touching it..." (242) The body of the text consists of: the title, the name of the author, the margins...and even quotation marks.

Simone underlined the essential role of well-educated European class in the creation of the idea of the body of the text.

Considering how the idea of the "text as a unified and closed body " was formed, Simone points out on the birth of writing. He says that "writing brought about a change in the intuitive idea of "text" and which resulted in the belief that the text, which was open, authorless, and devoid of originality, was really ...a stable, crystalized entity generated by a single author..."(243) Thought it was an interesting point that "the written discourse detaches itself from the the author who composed it and passes into the reader's hands. The author hands over to the reader a text which is stable.


Further Simone argues that even if  a written text is stable, it does not exclude the possibility of being tampered with.

Interesting point: "Writing a book is quite another thing from commenting, copying, or annotating it. However, in the near future it will be increasingly difficult to say...who is the author of a text." Simone concludes with the statement that "writing technology will bring about changes in the collective consciousness and sooner or the closed and protected text will be a thing of the past" (251).

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