Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Expectancy Theory of Motivation Introduction When we talk about motivation, we can see motivation as the strength arising from the mind / mental effort that dictates how an individual will behaviour in an organization or work place, how much effort this individual has on his/her tasks and how this person continues firmly on his /her tasks whenever hurdles face him/her. To managers, their interest is to ensure implementation of strategies and thus they have the obligation to motivate their workers because loosing an employee can be very costly. In addition, managers need to motivate workers so that they can retain the valuable ones as well recruit the best to join the organization as this translates to success in implementing strategies. Through intrinsic reward (self-satisfaction on completing a task) and extrinsic reward (being recognized by others for good work done), employees are able to perform as managers expect, thus managers have to ensure they motivate their employees. As there are several motivation theories, only thr ough comparing and contrasting one can establish which ones motivate workers more than others. Maslows pyramid or hierarchy of needs theory of motivation has greater motivation to employees than Vrooms expectancy theory. Comparing First, Maslows hierarchy theory as an earlier proposition, it creates the base on which Vrooms expectancy theory, a later edition, builds on. Secondly, both the Expectancy and the Maslows hierarchy of needs motivational theories, they both enable a person to modify his/her input (efforts to undertake a task) depending on the importance they have on the expected result in the entire procedure of undertaking that task and what they understand about input and output. For example, Maslow theory of motivation as a commonly known theory, it addresses needs of an individual in a hierarchy manner. It considers a single need and this need depends on already other satisfied needs. From an arrangement of how these needs need to fulfilment in a hierarchy manner, one can establish those that require early fulfilment than others. In addition, both theories allows an individual to establish which results are most likely to motivate people and this will dictate the best measures to take as factors o f their experiences and expectations ( Droar 2006). Maslows understanding on the effect of unsatisfied needs relates to expectancy theory in that like Maslow, Vroom indicates in the expectancy theory that the need to fulfil unmet demands is what motivates individuals where such a person will make a concerned decision to undertake a certain task in a manner that he/she understands as satisfying that need. Therefore, high motivation will manifest where there is concise and quantified goals that for example in a team the team members understand how a task as achievable and how it would benefit them considerably. In cases of low motivation, team members usually become frustrated as they cannot define the best ways to undertake different tasks and for what rewards these tasks can bring to them (Yeatts and Hyten 1998, p. 64). In addition, whenever an individual understands that he/she is lacking an essential item/want necessary for wellbeing, then this understanding will establish a need for that individual to undertake activities or behave in a manner that will lead to satisfying that particular need. Moreover, if someone understands that certain need is being satisfied, then this person will lack motivation to manifest characters/behaviours that associate with fulfilling the need (Yeatts and Hyten, 1998, p. 63). Considering this perspective in a work place, what this indicates is that financial benefits will act as a significant motivation tool until an understanding that the money is a way of fulfilling different categories of demands (basic needs). Contrary to this, if these people understand that such demands are fulfilling, then these people/employees will lack motivation to fulfil such needs and will rather establish other ways of fulfilling higher ranked needs touching self-esteem. The more the ex pectations employees have on their job, the greater the motivation they will have to perform. These approaches are common both the Maslows hierarchy of needs and Vrooms expectancy theories of motivation. Contrasting As suggested by Victor Vroom and unlike Maslow theory, the expectancy theory of motivation does not focus on needs but concentrates in the results. When Maslows hierarchy of needs theory concentrates on the association of internal needs of an individual and the expected effort needed to satisfy them such as time and money, Vroom puts apart effort (a result of motivation), performance, and results/outcome. What this means is that for anyone to get motivated, the drive behind effort should associate with execution of relevant tasks and the outcome. To connect the drive/effort with performance, expectancy helps one to believe that extra dedication on a task will improve performance, meaning hard work pays. For the hard work to be fruitful there has to be right resources (adequate time, appropriate skills, and support). Linking performance and outcome will be instrumentality that helps one perceive that whenever an individual performs excellently, then a worthy outcome is viable and fina lly valence connects outcome and effort as dictated by the main motivation. For example, if cash motivates someone, then taking leave would not be valuable to this person because he is not making money. In Maslows theory of motivation, individuals get motivation from something extra as compared to only cash/financial benefits and job fulfilment. Therefore, the broad consideration of varying factors improves motivation of individuals/employees. Expectancy theory on its part only illustrates motivation as not applying to all cases as the understanding of whatever one wants to achieve/objects relates to efforts on a task and performance of that task, performance and compensation/gain, gain and objective fulfilment. As these will differ for different individuals as well as locations, to design rewarding systems, managers should thus always consider respective organizational structure so that the rewards offered relate to individual goals in such environments (Gunkel 2006, p. 15). Expectancy Theory of motivation proves to be most sophisticated comparing to Maslows theory in motivating employees because the effort to undertake a task will relate to the surrounding and capability to dictate the resulting achievement/performance of a person (Griffin and Moorhead 2009, p. 99). This theory to significant number of people and situations, might fail to apply. For example, it is more difficult to change management practices of an organization to meet individual needs, which might appear as outdated ways of doing things to many people and thus expectancy theory viewed as an individualized theory rather than management oriented (Hassard and Parker 1993, p. 93). Contrary to the expectancy theory, Maslows hierarchy of needs theory has the option that working towards self-actualization, rather than actually achieving it may be the ultimate motivation for most people (Griffin and Moorhead 2009, p. 88). As currently, some people find themselves leaving high paying jobs that fail to satisfy their job objectives to low paying jobs that satisfy. Maslows gives a sense of understanding without conscious reasoning thus common to many practicing managers and gives a general structure to classify demands as needs will not necessary fit to Maslows model. In the manner in which the needs rank, the bottom needs will be termed as physiological needs (food and water) and they determine when the following batch of growth needs (knowing and perceiving ones needs) will start fulfilment. It is only when the growth needs are fulfilled that one is at peace to attain his/her potential such as self-actualization (example) after which one can overcome his/her self-es teem (example) to assist others (Droar 2006). This is a more realist arrangement that enables one to progressive exploit his/her potential through satisfaction from preceding level of needs unlike expectancy theory that limits only on reward and job satisfaction. The expectation theory to managers will base their reward on individual achievement as to how better that individual relates input and output paying attention of any possible changes in the process to reduce risk. Furthermore, managers are required to utilize organizational structure that hold rewards and performance together as well as ensuring rewards are worthy to employees, and should involve in training to improve employees ability and understanding that extra effort yields good performance. This can be challenging as the process might turn out to be complex for some mangers. However, Maslows hierarchy of needs theory will give the flexibility for managers to allow development up the ranks of their employees in the best way they feel satisfied increasing motivation. In addition, Maslows theory allows managers to understand the significant needs active for specific employee ensuring motivation. Conclusion In summary, Maslows hierarchy of needs theory has greater motivation to employees compared to the expectancy theory. Although they compare in some aspects, the significantly differ in others. These two theories compare in Maslow theory creating a base from which expectancy theory develops from, both enabling a person to modify his/her input depending on the importance they have on the expected result after performing a task, as well as allowing an individual to establish which results are most likely to motivate them or others. Contrary to the similarities, expectancy theory concentrates on the needs rather than the results on a particular task where else Maslows theory focuses on how the different needs associate with themselves and what it calls fro to satisfy them and allows managers to understand the significant needs active for specific employee ensuring motivation. Expectancy theory separates effort, performance, and achievement of a certain task making it difficult and sophist icated for many individuals to explore their potentials because the effort to undertake a task will relate to the surrounding and capability to dictate the resulting achievement/performance of a person. This can be a complex process. Therefore, Maslows hierarchy of needs theory of motivation is more realistic and cheaper in motivating compared to expectancy theory of motivation. References Droar, D., 2006. Expectancy theory of motivation. Available at: http://www.arrod.co.uk/archive/concept_vroom.php [accessed 18 March 2010] Griffin, R. and G. Moorhead, 2009. Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. 9th ed. Connecticut, US: Cengage Gunkel, M., 2006. Country-compatible incentive design: a comparison of employees performance reward preferences in German and the USA. New York: Springer Hassard, J. and M. Parker, 1993. Post modernization and organization. London, UK: SAGE Yeatts, D. and C. Hyten, 1998. High-performing self-managed work teams: a comparison of Theory to practice. London, UK: SAGE

Powerful Emotion in Louise Glucks The School Children Essay -- School

Powerful Emotion in Louise Gluck's The School Children   Ã‚   In the poem The School Children, author Louise Gluck successfully creates for the reader an image of the children, their mothers and the position that they hold in their society.   Her simple, yet descriptive words suggest a more in depth meaning that allows one to look past the simple story line of the poem and actually look into the entire situation the poem discusses.   The story line simply   tells of mothers who pick apples and send their children off to school with them, in hopes that they will receive an education in return.   After completion of the poem, the reader comes to the realization that the apples are the center of the poem, around which the true meaning revolves.  Ã‚   Through seemingly simple words, Gluck conveys a meaning to the reader throughout the poem that is camouflaged, so to speak, within the apples, as well as within her words..   Gluck’s use of simple diction and imagery deceptively display the powerful emotion, desperate hope, and passionate meaning held within the apples.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first stanza, Gluck describes the apples the mothers have collected as ?words of another language?.   This tells the reader that the apples have another meaning, they are used for expression, possibly an expression of the mothers? thoughts, feelings, or intentions.   This line alone allows the reader to question what the apples actually represent.   By describing the apples in this way, Gluck tells the reader that the apples mean more than what the surface of the poem tells us, we can then infer that the poem itself also has an alternate meaning.   Therefore, with this line, Gluck is not only beginning to use descriptive diction to imply meaning, but also to excite ... ...of the poem by expressing to the reader the seriousness and significance of the situation.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is clear that true meaning behind the poem is contained within the apples.   Recalling that Gluck described the apples of ?words of another language? in the first stanza of the poem, we now understand that Gluck herself used the apples as words of another language.   By using the first description of the apples to excite the reader?s curiosity, by using the apples to keep the teacher?s happy, and by creating an image of the apples as ammunition, Gluck has successfully   used diction and imagery to create an underlying meaning to the poem without ever actually stating it.   In conclusion, Gluck has deceptively used the apples, coupled with her excellent use of diction and imagery, to display a far more in depth meaning in a unique, yet entertaining way.   

Celies Transformation in Alice Walkers Color Purple Essay -- Color P

Celie's Transformation in The Color Purple      Ã‚  Ã‚   Celie is not a typical protagonist. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character Celie is an ugly, poor girl who is severely lacking in self-confidence. However, Celie transforms throughout the course of the novel and manages to realize herself as a colorful, beautiful, and proud human being. Celie becomes a powerful individual.    The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. What is remarkable is the fact that this transformation does not merely compose the plot of the novel, it also dominates the layout of the pages. The book's chapters are not written in a typical fashion as each chapter is a letter written from Celie to God, Celie to her sister Nettie, or Nellie to Celie. Alice Walker utilized this method of storytelling to give the reader a very personal glimpse into Celie's mind and soul. The writer gets a feel for Celie through her writing style- she uses specific phrasing to express herself and, over time, her mechanical writing skills improve greatly. We see Celie's thought process as she makes decisions and then writes about them. This powerful narration is the main driving force behind the words.      Ã‚   If we analyse the story instead of the narrative perspective can we see that the main reason of Celie's insecurity is caused by the way she is treated by men. She is sexually abus... ...kling transforms into a beautiful swan.    Works Cited and Consulted:    Klosowski, John E. "The Color Purple and Its True Color." Houston Cronicle. December 14, 1995 : 42-44.    Smith, Pamela A. "Green Lap, Brown Embrace, Blue Body: The Ecospirituality of Alice Walker." April Cross Currents 2000 (1999): 18 p. Online. Internet. 30 Nov. 2001.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Available: http://www.aril.org.smith2.htm.    Walker, Alice.   The Color Purple. Washington. Pocket Books/Washington Square Press (1985). Winchell, Donna Haisty. Alice Walker. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. Notes: 1 Walker, Alice, The Color Purple (1982), p. 11 2 ibid, p. 38 3 ibid, p. 76 4 Walker (1982), p. 82

Comparing The Dead and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Essay

The Dead and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man    Unlike the preceding stories in Dubliners, which convey the basic theme of paralysis, "The Dead" marks a departure in Joyce's narrative technique.   As one critic notes, in this final story of Dubliners:   "The world of constant figures has become one of forces that, in relation to each other, vary in dimension and direction" (Halper 31).   Epstein has offered some insight into Joyce's technique in Portrait: "Each section . . . contains significant 'timeless' moments in the life of the artist, selected from a lifetime of events.   The reader's attention traces the line of the curve from one point to the next until the complete curve is defined. . . . Both he [the artist] and the reader became completely aware of the landscape of his soul and the nature of it"   (103). The above excerpt is provided for the benefit of the student only.   The complete essay begins below. To venture into the morass of Joycean scholarship reminds one of the closing lines of the poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold.   It reads: ...The world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. ( 1148 ) The sense of anxious hope captured in these lines is much like the struggle experienced by one seeking to offer a fresh perspective on the complex works of James Joyce.   On a deeper level, though, the poem suggests an important aspect of Joyce's prose.   Arnold's poem is often singled out as a prime exa... ....   New   York:   Penguin, 1976. Levin, Harry.   "The Artist." James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:  Ã‚   Text, Criticism, and Notes.   Ed.   Chester G. Anderson.   New York:   Penguin,   1968.   399-415. Loe, Thomas.   "'The Dead' as Novella."   James Joyce Quarterly 28 (1991):   485-98. Power, Arthur.   Conversations with James Joyce.   Ed. Clive Hart.   London:   Ã‚  Millington, 1974. Torchiana, Donald T.   Backgrounds for Joyces' Dubliners.   Winchester, MA:   Allen   and Unwin, 1986. Welsh, James M.   "The Dead."   Masterplots II:   Short Story Series 5   Ed. Frank N.   Magill.   Pasadena, CA:   Salem Press, 1986, 510-15. Winters, Kirk.   "Joyce's Ulysses as Poem:   Rhythm, Rhyme, and Color in   "Wandering Rocks."   Emporia State Research Studies 31 (Winter 1983), 5-44. Wright, David G.   Characters of Joyce.   Dublin:   Gill and Macmillan, 1983.   

Minimum wage versus Earned Income Tax Credit

Minimal pay versus Earned Income Tax CreditAbstractionMinimal pay can be defined as the smallest hourly pay rate that a staff member paid as authorized by federal jurisprudence. The pay rate was ab initio verified by corporate bargaining by authorities regulations and ordinance, saying the lowest rate at which workers may be employed. A legal minimal pay rate is one permitted by authorities for all staff members in a society, with little figure of freedoms. In other words, lower limit pay is the least dollar sum that company must pay to non-exempt staff members per hr, as permitted by local, province or federal jurisprudence. Most of the companies pay to the workers by hourly rate or in some other manner like on committee footing. However, in any instance, the sum of dollar that qualified staff members earn, divided by the entire hours that they worked, must be tantamount to the current minimal pay rate. Earned income revenue enhancement recognition is a revenue enhancement recognition for employees gaining low incomes. Even employees whose incomes are so low to hold paid revenue enhancements can acquire earned income revenue enhancement recognition. The thought is to diminish the income revenue enhancement that for certain low-income tax-payers would otherwise be indebted. It is a refundable sum of recognition ; hence if the revenue enhancement that is outstanding is less than the sum of the recognition, the difference is paid to the taxpayer as a refund. To run into the standards for the earned income revenue enhancement recognition, a taxpayer must work and gain less than the authorities ‘s bound for registering position and household fortunes, convene a set of peculiar state of affairss, and register the needed IRS programs.Minimal pay versus Earned Income Tax CreditMinimal pay can be defined as the smallest hourly, day-to-day or monthly pay that employers may legitimately pay to employees or staff members. Systematically, it is the lowest pay at which employees may sell off their labor. Even though minimal pay regulations are in consequence in a great many governments, there are unsimilarities of sentiment about the net incomes, benefits and disadvantages of a minimal pay. The follower of the minimal pay say that is enhances or increases the populating criterion of employees and this will certainly cut down the per centum of poorness. Whereas, rivals say that if it is more than plenty to be effectual, it increases the ratio of unemployment, specifically among employees with really low productiveness because of rawness or disability, in that manner to aching lesser skilled workers to the benefit of better skilled workers. Minimal rewards were ab initio planned as a manner to form the detonation of perspiration stores in fabrication industries. The perspiration stores provide services to big population of adult females and immature workers, reimbursing them what were judged to be unsatisfactory rewards. Nowadays, lower limit pay Torahs cover up employees in most low-paid countries of employment. Even though, the aims of the minimal pay are loosely admitted as proper, there is great disagreement as to whether the minimal pay is much effective in accomplishing its aims. From the clip of their debut, lower limit pay Torahs have been highly controversial politically, and have received less aid and support from economic experts as compared to the general populace ( Neumark, & A ; Wascher, 2008 ) . Earned income is a scientific and practical term defined by the United States revenue enhancement codification. The below mentioned are the chief beginnings for the earned income: – rewards, wages, tips, committees from outside beginnings and other nonexempt employee compensation – net incomes from self-employment – sum income received as a statutory employee – less population of disablement payments – non-taxable battle wages which an associate of the United States armed services opts to include entirely for the motivation of earned income revenue enhancement recognition computation. Earned income revenue enhancement recognition shortly known as EITC or EIC, is a refundable revenue enhancement recognition, it is agencies tested, and planned to back up low-income employees of staff members and equilibrate the load of United States paysheet revenue enhancements. In other words, it is a refundable federal income revenue enhancement recognition for little to sensible income working individuals and households. Initially, Congress granted the revenue enhancement recognition statute law in 1975 in portion to counterbalance the burden and load of societal security revenue enhancements and to offer an inducement to work. When earned income revenue enhancement recognition goes beyond the sum of outstanding revenue enhancements, the effects in a revenue enhancement refund to those who claim and measure up for the recognition. To run into the standards for earned income revenue enhancement recognition, you must hold earned income from employment, self-employment or any other resource and acquire together specific regulations and ordinances. Additionally, you must either run into the excess regulations for staff employees or workers without a measure uping kid or have a child that convenes all the Qualifying Child Rules for you ( Meyer, & A ; Holtz-Eakin, 2002 ) . As, we have discussed about the basic debut of both footings, now, we can make up one's mind which does more for households holding low incomes? Raising the minimal rewards or bettering the earned-income revenue enhancement recognition, a hard currency fillip to be paid to workers gaining low-incomes. – By raising the minimal pay to 47.25, approximately 18 % of the 12 million members of staff who were paid between the current minimal pay and $ 7.24 an hr rate were in households that had hard currency income under the federal poorness in 2004. All of the employees come under that pay scope, instead than they received the sum of $ 7.25 per hr, they would hold gotten about $ 11 billion in excess rewards in the same twelvemonth. About 15 % of those excess and extra rewards ( $ 1.6 billion ) would hold been received by employees in hapless households. – Making better the earned income revenue enhancement recognition ( EITC ) : It all depends on how accurately Congress altered the jurisprudence, surely, by increasing revenue enhancement credits for childless workers and by besides increasing the credits for households with three or more childs, would hold cost up to $ 2.4 billion in 2004, with employees in households under the poorness line having $ 1.4 billion of the same. The basic thought of both constructs is, households who received fewer sums would hold received a maximal revenue enhancement recognition, and those persons who earned more sums would hold received a smaller sum of revenue enhancement recognition. Families whose revenue enhancement recognition crosses the sum of revenue enhancement owed in world receive a cheque from the authorities for the difference. The earned income revenue enhancement recognition is fundamentally the same as a negative income revenue enhancement, excepting that the eligibility for the plan is restricted to the persons who work. Similar to the statement, both the negative income revenue enhancement and the minimal pay, the earned income revenue enhancement recognition topographic points extra income into the custodies of employees who worked at low rewards. However, unlike the lower limit pay, the earned income revenue enhancement recognition makes no inducement for employers to put off low-wage staff members ( F rank, & A ; Bernanke, 2007 ) .DecisionAs we have clearly discussed about both subjects, lower limit pay and earned income revenue enhancement recognition. We believe that the minimal pay is merely the 2nd best option to the earned income revenue enhancement recognition and other displacement to the worker belongs to the hapless household. I believe that the traditional analysis of the lower limit pay has a reasonable sum and an person would truly hold a penchant to see more transportation payments to people, who are working and less attempts to carry through the same aim through regulative decree.MentionsFrank, Robert H. , & A ; Bernanke, Ben S. ( 2007 ) .Principles of economic sciences. New Delhi, India: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited. Neumark, David, & A ; Wascher, William L. ( 2008 ) .Minimum rewards. Massachusetts, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meyer, Bruce D. , & A ; Holtz-Eakin, Douglas. ( 2002 ) .Making work wage: the earned income revenue enhancement recognition and its impact on America ‘s households. New York, USA: Russell Sage Foundation Publications.

America Decline Essay

â€Å"America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.† This famous sentence pronounced by Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, at the beginning of his office in 1921, could be, from certain points of view, perfectly adapted today. In fact, America’s situation and future for four decades, has been largly debated. Is she in decline? Is she stil an empire, a power, a hyperpower? Two English professors : Michael Cox and Michael John Williams, both experts in this question, looked into this problem. Professor Cox, first, drew a pessimistic view of America in his essay Is the United States in decline-again? In response to this essay, M.J.Williams wrote The empire writes back where he explains how much Cox’s argument about America’s decline are false. Professor Cox, in his essay Is the United States in decline-again explains his theory about America’s decline. As we can see in the title America would be in decline â€Å"again†. In fact, until 1968 and during two decades the debate about America’s decline was in the air. People were talking about it, people were feeling it, people were reading it. They particularly read the work of Kennedy, an english historian who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In his famous book, Kennedy had two major propositions to explain United States’s decline. The first one was based in a realist notion : the fact that all empires has a finite lifepan. The second was empiric : America’s century was simply coming to his end, faster than anyone expected. This decline had differents causes : the defeat in Vietnam, the rising of the national debt, and above all, the â€Å"emergence of a more complex interdependant world† (Cox, 2007, 645), and this new worl d would completely change USA’s place in the world. Yet, in the nineties, things took a totally different turn. In fact, with the Gulf war of 91, the failure of Europe to resolve Yougolslavie’s issue, the economic crisis in Japan and then the Asian economic crisis, USA refound its place of first Power and everybody forgot the decline’s question during one decade. The major point wich changed everything for the USA was the end of the cold war, wich caused the  dissolution of the USSR and consequently the collapse of only one alternative for the world : capitalism. At this moment started a new era, for the USA and for the world : â€Å"The world system had finally been united† (Cox, 2007, 648) The nature of the USA changed with this new era : the USA became a modern empire, a hegemon, a hyperpower. They changed a lot in their forein policy : they set up a massive military lead, an extensive system of global alliances, a massive intelligence gathering and a global culture and economy. Under Clinton’s administration they also started to change the bases of their policy which became more unilateralist : â€Å"always more unilaterally inclined than their multilateral rethoric seemed to imply† (Cox, 2007, 648). The symbol of this unilateralism has been the invasion of Irak and Afghanistan after the events of the nine of eleven. In fact, they decided, against other coutry’s view to start a war, to fulfill their duty in fighting â€Å"the rogues sates† and declaring one each against Irak Afghanistan,Iran, North corea.. They found a new doctrine and it led them to their loss : â€Å"The US comitted one of the most basic of great power errorss : getting stuck into a quagmire in a country it would have been better to leave be† (Cox, 2007, 650). This events had serious consequences, the Third world changed totally his point of view about USA and many of them started to be be hostile towards them. Further, USA ignored the international laws and made huge dammages to the liberal order and to trust between countries. In the same time the other powers in the world are rising : Europe and china are playing more effetively wich â€Å"altere the way international relations are now conducted†. In fact USA are now constently challenged from the euro, from the other competitors as Toyota, even from the other towns as London wich is now the first stock exchange in the world. American start to feel that USA is changing : the majority of the middle and working class are in a sombre mood, the inequalities and the insecurity are increasing and so are their personal debt. To Cox’s point of view, even if USA is stile a refence point, challenging times are now arrived.

Poetic Language Essay

There is no denying that when an author writes a text there is more meaning in it than just the obvious plot, authors constantly litter their texts with themes, double entendre, metaphor etc. all of which can be easily missed by the reader. If one reader was to miss many of these techniques but another was to pickup on most, then surely the latter would have understood the work better, and in the way it was intended, and therefore their interpretation is the more valid of the two. However we could argue that the text was written badly, because certain readers cannot understand it in the way it was intended. All this is just a small part of one of the biggest debates in modern literature and criticism, and that is whether or not it is necessary to know the history and context behind a book to fully understand it. It used to be that a critic would say that the best way to understand a work is to understand each individual author, and the circumstances behind their text, today however the general feeling is that it is best not to cloud the readers judgement with all the facts behind a text. Critics would today say that the best way to read a text is to ignore everything that goes with it and just concentrate on what you, the reader, picks up from it. The reason this debate is so important in relation to this essay is that the amount of information the reader is given about a text will always affect, not only their understanding of it, but also the way in which they understand it. That is to say that if a reader is given a lot of information about a text then it is bound to make them except the book in the way it was intended. If they had not been given that information then it is very likely that they would have interpreted it in a way that was closer and more personal to them (‘interpretation is a function of identity†¦all of us as we read, use literary work to symbolise and finally to replicate ourselves’ – Norman Holland, Introduction to Literature 13). In this example which of the two interpretations is more creditable, should the perfect text be written in such a way as to eliminate any interpretations other than what was intended by the author; or should it be written in a way that leaves the meaning open to debate and therefore have an infinite number of interpretations? Either way once a text has been shown to the public then the author has no control of what the reader will make of it, or how it is interpreted, and so it is left to the reader to make their own judgements and except it in the way that they want to. So is their interpretation incorrect? Obviously there is no way to prove the answer to this question but in this essay I intend to discuss both sides to the argument and draw up a conclusion as to what I think the answer is. The most obvious place to start would be by looking at other people’s interpretations of texts, and some of those interpretations are in films. I realise that film is never the best example to use when discussing literature because the plot and script are very rarely the same as the original. However, in the case of Shakespeare, this is not always true because the text is so well written and so powerful that it would be wrong and completely missing the point of making the film if you were to change it. Also the interpretations in films are usually much more diverse and varied which makes it a good example to look at because if you can find an interpretation which has been recommended to students as one not to use, as valid (‘†¦most candidates appeared to know Macbeth well. Some, however, were handicapped by having seen a film version†¦candidates should remember that it is Shakespeare’s text which is being examined.’ – Holderness, Interpreting Shakespeare 113); then that goes a long way to show that any interpretation is indeed a valid one. In the conclusion of a book called Interpreting Shakespeare on Screen the author sums up how Shakespeare is generally interpreted by the directors: ‘I have considered the ways in which films of Shakespeare’s plays, like literary criticism, produce different views on issues such as violence (by, to a greater extent, pretending it is absent from Shakespeare’s plays); gender (film changes gender roles, producing different Ophilias and Gertrudes†¦); sexuality†¦; race†¦; and finally, nationalism†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Cartmell, Interpreting Shakespeare 109) Cartmell shows us here how every different director has interpreted parts of the same play differently. She makes it clear that she does not agree with everything they have done, however she does recognise them as valid interpretations and has devoted a lot of time and effort to studying these films and producing a book which shows us the different interpretations and techniques used in filming Shakespeare’s plays. I have to agree with Cartmell on the point that to try and say that there is no violence in Shakespeare is ridiculous, all you have to do is look at Macbeth or Hamlet to see that that is wrong. These directors who have chosen to ignore this violence must have interpreted it in a different way, perhaps they saw the violence as justified and so chose to ignore it for that reason. Whatever the reason, is this interpretation as valid as Cartmell’s and mine? I would like to say that it is not but I cannot rule it out without having the other side of the argument put to me, and once an argument has been put forward surely that gives their view some sort of validity. If you have two people who have interpreted a section of prose differently and they can both argue their theory well then who is to say that they are not both valid. On the other hand if you again have two people with different views about a book’s meaning but this time one of them manages to persuade the other that they are wrong and so changes his mind, then would this not mean that the person with the better and stronger argument is the only one with the valid interpretation? After all the dictionary definition of valid is ‘soundly reasoned or having legal force’ and so if someone has an opinion about a text and stands by it but cannot argue the point surely this makes their opinion an invalid one. In An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory reader-response criticism is summed up in three different ways. Firstly it is said that each individual, when reading, will always respond in a personal way. They will take what is written and match it to the situation they are in or have been in, and so can relate to the text better by doing this. This theory would explain why different people come up with different interpretations, it also suggests that each of those interpretations are valid because if you are relating a text to your personal experiences then it has to be a genuine response. Like every theory though there is always another side to the argument and this is where Stanley Fish’s idea that each reader belongs to a ‘community of readers’ comes in. There is still the idea that the reader relates to the text with their personal experience, and I do not think that many people would dispute that idea, but what Fish says is that the personal side to it is much more generalised. It is more to do with your background and your education, someone from England would interpret a book differently than someone from Africa because their backgrounds are completely different. The third explanation that is given is Wolfgang Iser’s view, which is the one I relate to the most. His theory is that the reader’s imagination is what produces the interpretation. If there is a point in the text which is not fully explained then we, the reader, are left to work it out for ourselves, for example in King Lear when Cordillia tells her father that she loves him ‘according’ to her ‘bond’, the reader is left wondering why she did that and not just make something up to rival her sisters’ answers; was it because she is stubborn or perhaps for moral reasons? The answer that the reader comes up with is their imagination filling in the gap. As Iser said the reader ‘is drawn into the events and made to supply what is meant from what is not said’ (Iser 1995, 24). This is particularly relevant when it comes to explaining interpretation because it is ‘what is not said’ in a text that gets the reader thinking, if a detail is mentioned but not explained then it is left to the reader to make up their own conclusions. Northrop Frye shares the same opinion as Iser, he wrote that reading is ‘like a picnic to which the author brings the words and the reader the meaning’ (Frye, http://www.clas.ufi.edu). Interpretation is a huge part of literature, it is involved in any type of reading that we do and it is completely up to the reader to how that literature is receive. The author, or his input anyway, dies as soon as they let the public see their text which leaves the reader on their own to read between the lines and come up with whatever they like. Having said this it leaves us thinking that if the author leaves the interpretation up to the reader then how can that interpretation be wrong, every author excepts the fact that their book will be taken in a way that wasn’t intended and they will not try to change that because it is all part of literary criticism. An author wouldn’t ever say that someone’s opinion was invalid because valid does not mean it is what was intended it only means that it is justified. One of Iser’s main points whenever he is talking of interpretation is that ‘Every interpretation transposes something into a different register that is not part of the subject matter to be interpreted. Therefore each interpretation is an act of translation, in the course of which something is shifted into what it is not.’ (Iser, http://sun3.lib.uci.edu). What he means is that interpretation might as well mean the same as translation when talking about literature; because the author is not sitting next to the reader and explaining what was actually meant the reader has to do the working out for themselves, which means that they may translate what is written in front of them into ‘what it is not’. The reader is reading things in the text which were not put there deliberately, they are reading not what is said but what has not been said so a large group of people who all read the same text have no chance of all reading the same thing because everybody wi ll have filled in the gaps slightly differently. ‘If the poem has a voice, it is articulated before, and one rearticulates it, reads it with one’s own voice, one has a reading which cannot properly be univocal.’ (John Lye, http://www.brocku.ca/english). This is much the same point as Frye was making with his example of a picnic; the author only produces the words and then it is the reader’s job to find meaning to these words. That almost makes it sound as if the reader has the greater task out of the two and it maybe that they do if once they have read a work and come up with their interpretation (or translation) they are then told that it is not a valid reading of that text. I have said that this topic of interpretation is one of the largest in modern literature and it is very closely linked with an equally large topic, deconstruction. The obvious source to turn to on this is The Critic as Host. In Lye’s commentary of this essay he makes a very good summary of what Miller had written: ‘Deconstruction, Miller seems to be concluding, opens us to the power and the complexities of language, thought, tradition, influence, meaning, to the ambiguities and paradoxes which really constitute what we once mistook for a unified field theory of human knowledge, by providing a form, a way of proceeding, which acknowledges the deep mysteries of meaning and which allows us to free ourselves from the tyrannies of univocal reading.’ (Lye, http://www.brocku.ca/english). There are two parts to this quote that I want to briefly discuss. Firstly, the fact that deconstruction ‘opens us to the power’ of language, thought and meaning. This cannot be said better in any other way, this is exactly what deconstruction does and it is this that leads the readers on to making their own interpretations of a text. Deconstruction makes us, the reader, think and analyse what has been written and from that draw up our conclusion of what was actually meant. The second part I wanted to look at is the fact that deconstruction allows us ‘to free ourselves from the tyrannies of univocal reading.’ Is ‘univocal reading’ actually a tyranny? Miller and Lye obviously think so, and I would agree, if literature was as straight cut as being able to read a book and draw up exactly the same interpretation ass everyone else there would be no need or point to study it. So how does deconstruction free us from this tyranny? The answer is because it forces the reader to think for themselves, to interpret a text in the way they want it interpreted instead of how the author, or even a teacher tells them to interpret it. Deconstruction forces the reader to be open minded about a text; to try and read something almost original into it. Again this all leads to a different interpretation to what others have read. However, the question of whether thinking for oneself, and the new ideas and interpretations that brings is valid or not is still present. When I picked this question I always thought that the only possible answer was that every interpretation is a valid one, that is the opinion that most people hold. However, after exploring the topic I have found a few doubts. Although they come to expect it, is it really fair to take an authors text that they have probably been working on for a matter of years and completely change the meaning of it? Surely what they write is personal to them, not necessarily as an experience they have had but more that they have devoted so much time to their work to a standard that they see as perfection. They then introduce it to the public and a critic misinterprets it and gives it a bad review because they did not like their own translation of what was written. These doubts I have are not strong enough to change my mind, but they are there and should not be ignored. In closing I do believe that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and literary criticism is exactly that, opinions. There is no way to write a text and ensure that every reader interprets it in the way it was intended. Authors are very interested to learn about different interpretations of their works and I think that it is this acceptance and acknowledgement from them that not proves but should persuade people that any interpretation of any work is a valid one. I will finish with a quote from an interpretation of Miller’s The Critic as Host that sums up what I believe to be the answer to whether all interpretations are valid or not: ‘The root of idea is the word for image. To imagine is to image. All figures are not what they figure. Univocality is impossible. Everything always means something else.'(Lye,http://www.brocku.ca/english).