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http://doi.org/10.332.34/SSR.23.15
READING ACTS
Theoretical contributions to the Literary Practice
Liliana María Pazo
English translation by Deborah Rotshtein
Introduction
The construction of meaning in a literary work
Make sure that, reading your story, the melancholic move towards laughter, those who laugh begin doing it louder, the simple are not bothered, the discreet become amazed with the invention, the serious do not disregard it, nor the wise stop praising it.
Cervantes
Although literature suffers modifications, gaining new momentum and forces, it is and will always be an irreplaceable way for men to get to know themselves and their relationship with the world.
Words, as the primary matter of literature, are a double sign where the signified (meaning) is the mental configuration that constitutes the internal component of the sign and the signifier is the auditory part. Each word, an indivisible sign, is what creates a piece of literature, its verbal message, its imaginary world, and its aesthetic values. Literary words remain open to the reader in its signifying richness, where the linguistic sign carries multiple meanings, rather than one exclusive meaning. A verse can have a literal meaning but that verse is only one part of the whole meaning and that whole meaning is polyvalent because literary language preserves and transcends, at the same time, the literality of words.
That is why we say that literary language is metaphorical by nature, since it describes things in an indirect manner rather than a direct way; it creates a plurality of meanings and its function is, instead of reproducing, representing. Symbolic language allows us to reinvent the objective world; therefore, the representative function is essential in men’s life because it entails a particular character independent of signification. That particular language is what makes the representation of the real world and the dreamt one possible, by the means of literature.
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Written by Liliana Pazo, Argentinian, Professor, (USAL) Graduate and Doctor of Letras
(language). Specialist in Superior Education and Diploma in Education. She has worked as a
Linguistics and Semiotics Professor in several of the country’s technical tertiary education
institutions and universities and has acted as the Vice-dean and Academic Director of the
ILSE (UBA). She has directed and participated in investigation projects in the UBA and the
Profesorado Superior Dr. J. V. Gonzalez as well as coordinated and presented in conferences
and seminars within Argentina and in other countries. She has taught courses in Linguistic
Capacitation for teachers and other professionals, and has written many academic articles and
texts such as Actos de Lectura (Biblos, 2011), El párrafo (Libros, 2016) and El léxico (Biblos,
2011). She is currently writing Semiótica, cultura y neoliberalismo.
Translation in charge of Deborah Rotshtein, who studied Letras in the University of Buenos
Aires, with a specialization in Foreign Literature. She has taken courses in Ghent University,
Jean Moulin Lyon III University and HarvardX. Currently, she is an Adscripta at the French
Literature Faculty (UBA), where she started to translate. She has taught Creative Writing and
literary courses at the Escuela Presidente Roca and the Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza
and was also part of the Premio Adolfo Bioy Casares 2020 Selection Jury. She is the author of
Un verano en el equinoccial (Halley, 2025).