Stephanie Whitehead- Textualism

Ong talks about various literary response theories in his book and one that caught my eye was textualism. Textualism believes that there is no direct correlation between the greater cosmos, speech and text. They believe that one cannot pipeline information from one to the other because the other can’t “know” what the former knew. They believe that you cannot impart direct knowledge from one to another. They feel that the text exists only in the moment, in and of itself and nothing else, and is not symbolic but actual. Ong shows that this is the most text bound ideology because it focuses on the text alone. Without knowing the background and the history/origin of the text, I agree with Ong that you cannot fully comprehend what is written. Without know the original purposes and story told that related to it and how they originated then you cannot fully comprehend the nuances and hidden intentions that are littered through out a text. Most texts refer to other stories that are known to be related. You cannot simply say that a text is a closed system and only of itself and by itself. To do so is to discredit a great amount of symbolism and meaning in a text.