Structure and source

Abstract

One way to avoid the danger of dissolving text in assumed context is to focus on those qualities which make the text unique. Its particular style and language deserve the closest attention. So too does the structure of the work, the way it is put together. This appears to offer a more objective understanding, in the sense that the work is studied in terms of its own articulation. Structure can be demonstrated by analysis, and does not seem subject to such judgements or assumptions as are required by arguments based on convention or symbolic scheme. So Fitzroy Pyle, one of those who deal with the structure of the play, compares himself not to the Mr Interpreter of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress but to ‘Mr. Spectator the impartial observer seeking to record what is there for him to see’ (1969, p. xi). In assessing the value of the approach it is worth asking how far this claim is justified.