Paper 2: What do you think about the assertion that the meaning of a text is fixed and does not change over time?

All texts are created to convey a message or express the feelings of the author, and while those messages or emotions can`t be changed after producing the text, the interpretation of that work can vary, and it will depend on the reader and his/her context. Therefore, it is necessary to be clear about context. Context is what surrounds the development and the reception of the text. The context of production is the context that surrounds the writing of a text and the context of reception is the one that surrounds the reading of a text, involving the culture, the times and the experiences of the reader, being these what affects the meaning the reader gives to the text. Because the context of reception can differ (as someone may read Tennyson`s poems in 1990 and another person can read them in 2014, and some people think differently from others due to various reasons), some people may interpret the text differently, affected by the changes that affect society during time, and affected by their own ways of understanding texts. Being this said, we have to add that there are texts that involve an historical context, and by that mean there are meanings given by the authors can`t be changed, as they are clearly referring to an historical event.

For example, in the novel Fatelessness, published in 1975 and written by Imre Kèrtez we see a clear reference to the lives of Jewish people on the Second World War and how they were segregated and suffered. They were discriminated because of their religion and that is the main focus of the novel, discrimination. Imre Kèrtez suffered himself the discrimination and segregation of the Second World War and he wrote this novel to tell his story. 

Although there are many events that go beyond discrimination into personal relations with people. the overall meaning of Fatelessness is the discrimination the Jewish people suffered. This would not change over time because it was the meaning the author wanted to give to the novel, because it is the vision the author had to create his book. The one think that could vary is the understanding and interpretation the reader gives to the novel, as it depends on his own thinking, his culture and the times he reads the novel. For example, you could make two different people read Fatelessness and one may think it was atrocious how people suffered during those war times, while the other one may think it was a deserved punishment for the Jewish people. This interpretations vary because the readers are different one from each other, they have different lives, culture and were educated differently, maybe even on different times one from each other.

We can also see the theme of discrimination on the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" published in 1960 by Harper Lee. The novel centres on the segregation and discrimination african american people suffered on the United States on the decade of 1940. This historical context of discrimination can be seen during the whole novel and it can`t be denied that it`s the theme of it.
Obviously, people can give different importance and may have a variety of thoughts about this theme of discrimination depending on their ways of thinking and how society see things on the different times of reception. As an example, if this book was published earlier (like on the mid 40´s) the person that reads the book on the publishment year could think that the discrimination shown on it is something normal, while someone who reads the book now could find the society and context that surrounds the character´s lives to be racist and horrible By this it is possible to say that interpretations are always more flexible than the meanings the authors convey to the novels.
It is true then that some interpretations can be different from others, and it is also true that some authors do not give a particular meaning to their novels, but in the cases of the novels Fatelessness and To Kill a Mockingbird the meaning and the intention the authors Imre Kertez and Harper Lee were to make us know the situations of discrimination that people suffered, being it on the Unitede States or on Europe.
To conclude, we must identify that there is the context of production and the context of reception, and therefore we have the interpretations and meanings the author gives and the interpretations and meanings the reader gives to the novels. Authors give a particular meaning and have a defined motif to write novels, specially when their novels are based on historical events such as on these two novels, Fatelesness (World War Two, Europe 1940) and To Kill a Mockingbird (South of the United States, 1940), because they centre their writing on events so delicate for human history, and therefore they use these events to shape their novels and give the meanings they did, about a moral and social criticism to discrimination. On the other hand, readers are various and come from different times and cultural contexts, so the meaning they find in the novels differ because they are not educated the same ways as others, their cultures are different and they ways they think are also different, and their personal experience differ also, being this last two point something that differs on every person regardless of if they have the same cultural context.