Language, Literature and Binocular Interdisciplinarity: On Negation in Homer

Abstract

This paper argues a strong form of the proposition that linguistics and literary criticism, literary and non-literary texts should be combined so closely that the outcome will produce new understanding. It distinguishes between weak forms of interdisciplinarity in common practice, and two more powerful forms: metadisciplinarity, which is inclusive and transcends boundaries, and binocular interdisciplinarity, which uses the analogy with binocular vision where recognition of difference produces perception of depth in space and time. It will show that linguistic analysis on its own provides an inadequate account of language, and conversely that literary interpretations are inherently superficial without being anchored in a comprehensive knowledge of language and social systems. The paper sets the challenge of developing this productive relationship into the metadisciplinary framework of social semiotics. The argument is developed through analysing language and meaning in Homer, starting from the role of negation in the famous Cyclops story in the Odyssey. Under linguistic, literary and semiotic analysis, including postcolonial perspectives, multiple contexts of negation connect with profound meanings of the episode, and with Homer’s significance as a world-historical figure in western civilization.