My treasure map

I recently met with an instructor about my future in academics. She is who I would like to be in a few years so I asked her what and who i should read to enter into the historical and present conversation of literary theory and criticism.

Some questions I have in mind as I read these books:

1. What is the limits of representation and presentation? Dealing particularly with the nature of silence.
   
2. Why is art always trying to completely represent and/or present the world before us when we actually are in "reality?"
   
3. Why do readers still enter into fiction and fiction writers portray the readers world?
   
4. What is Derrida's thoughts on religion when he himself is Jewish?
5. Does language use us?
   
6. The nature of language and the divide between Jacques Lacan and Ferdinand Saussure.
   

Here are the notes from our conversation. I must say that I have also included the books Orthodoxy and The Philosopher and the Wolf, which were recommended by two dear friends. And a personal side note: I am also reading Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald daily.

This is my "for fun reading list" for the next month of two. I am excited and giddy to read these works.

1. Return to Freud by Samuel Weber
a. “The Unconscious Chess Player”
b. “Saussure and the Apparition of Language” (Not sure if in this work)

2. Points...: Interviews, 1974-1994 by Jacques Derrida

3. The Postcard: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond by Jacques Derrida
a. Specifically the “Love Letters” section.

4. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

5. Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy) by John Caputo

6. Look for interviews with Jacques Rancière

7. Look for interviews with Hélène Cixous. Read Anthology.
a. “The Gardening of Language” interview.
b. The Laugh of the Medusa (what she is most known for)
c. Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing by Helene Cixous, Susan Sellers, and Sarah Cornell
d. Look for London speech in near future.

8. On Literature (Thinking in Action) by J. Hillis Miller

9. Arts of Impoverishment: Beckett, Rothko, Resnais by Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit
a. Just read introduction. Get at library.

10. “What is an Author” by Michel Foucault.

11. Jacques Derrida (Routledge Critical Thinkers) by Nicholas Royle

12. The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands.