30
PARTISAN REVIEW
critical
act, then it is not surpnsmg that the medium of a
post–
modernist literature should be the critical text wrought into a paraliter–
ary form. And what is clear is that Barthes and Derrida are the
writers,
not the critics, that students now read.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: I want
to
point out that structuralism has become
the main theme of this conference. Lines seem to be drawn between
those who favor structuralism or are sympathetic
to
it and those who
are opposed to it or are unsympathetic to it.
It
seems
to
me that
Rosalind Krauss, who has been forthright in her espousal of struc–
turalism, is really more consistent than people who are trying to sit
on the fence. As I read her, she is saying that if structuralism is not
only a new but a valid and useful approach to literature and to the
other arts and disciplines of thought, (hen it should be invading
what she calls the critical establishment. That is, that those of us
who write ordinary reviews and ordinary literary essays are being
impoverished. I think we should address this issue.
PETER BROOKS: I think it's clear that the organs of the intellectual mass
media-The New York Review of Books
and others-have systemati–
cally refused to review structuralist material. I think it is impera–
tively important that we discuss this question.
ROSALIND KRAUSS: I absolutely agree with what Peter says. I think there
is not a conscious conspiracy, but an unconscious conspiracy to keep
material which the editors of, for instance,
The New York Review of
Books
refer
to
as "froggy thinking," out and I think to denigrate it.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Is there other evidence of this so-called conspiracy?
Ro ALIND KRAUSS: I think that in a certain way the setup of this
particular symposium is evidence ')f it. I was particularly concerned
about Friday's ses ions where there seemed to be a sort of easy
acceptance of the idea that this material is written in jargon.
It
is
not
written in jargon. I'm referring now to the specialized language
Morris Dickstein was talking about.
MORRIS DICKSTEIN: Well, what is jargon but a specialized language?
ROSALIND KRAUSS: I think there is a difference. For instance, one uses
the terms
denotation
and
connotation
and when I started using those
when I was standing up there I heard William start rattling the
change in his pocket because those terms make him very nervous.
But they have specific meanings and I don't think that they are
jargon.
