Re: g/m/c/l

Russ Hunt (HUNT who-is-at academic.stu.StThomasU.ca)
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 08:37:02 AST

As usual, I'm feeling swamped by the richness of this discussion, and
falling behind on it . . . but I wanted to suggest in response to the
exchange between Mike Cole and Jim Martin that it seems to me that

> The notion that meaning is something people make

misses something important. I've been involved in literature
teaching for thirty-odd years, and in this racket there's a strong
historical tendency to objectify "meaning." I try to counter it, in
my own thinking and for my students, by insisting it's not something
people "make" but something they "do" -- that it's not a noun but a
verb -- and that it only exists in the process of exchange or
dialogue. I'm concerned about the consequences of thinking of it as
a "thing." It's an activity.

-- Russ
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