This post is truer to the spirit of a journal entry, because it merely stitches together a few new things I learned today. I love finding out about fundamental sorts of things that I had never heard before!
I was looking up "Reader Response Theory" in the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory (which I consider invaluable) and I stumbled across the entry on "Philology," which I thought had something to do with etymological-type research. Apparently, from the Greek "love of words," it refers to the founding of the liberal arts tradition. Priority of place in this founding is given to a 5th C. text titled, "On the wedding of philology and Mercury..." by Martianus Capella.
Anyway, a lot of interesting stuff here, some going backward into classical history, and some going forward to the establishment of schools. But I got sidetracked, in that Wiki sort of way. This text was said to be informed by "Menippean Satire" (related also to picaresque). That was intersting enough in itself. However, that sidetracked me on to Bakhtin, who is said to have developed a theory of the novel as a development out of Menippian satire. He is one of those guys I have heard of but really knew nothing about. And, at this juncture I cannot resist anything labeled "theory of the novel."
So, I encourage you to follow this up and give me feedback. Richard should be interested in that Dostoyevsky is central to the theory. I don't know what you will think otherwise; I am not sure what I think. Some of it seems counter to basic currents I travel in but there is something in this "plurality of voices" that sounded compelling -- if not true, at least something I need to add to my discursive frame of reference on literature.
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