1. Poststructuralism making sense of human reality is largely dependent on linguistic and visual signs these signs are often attributed with meanings that seem more fixed and stable than they really are thus the relationship between the signifier (sound-image of a word) and the signified (concept) is always unstable meaning is fluid and indeterminate poststructural criticism seeks to undo the authority of text by disclosing contradictions of logic and meaning in the text

2. Frames of Reference everyday life is ordered or “framed” by conventional conceptual schemas which delineate the ordinary, typical situations we experience (what Jerome Bruner calls a “canonicity of human action”) readers approach works with a background of experience and a knowledge of frames which enable them to develop expectations authors can play with that expectation, both using it and overturning it

3. Intertextuality all texts exist in relationship with other texts (texts broadly defined) a text is linked to other texts by reminiscences, similarities, reworkings, generic affiliations, intellectual contexts, story patterns intertextuality highlights the wealth of connections and experiences readers bring to the text

4. Some questions Think about how this book exploits the way signs are both conventional and unstable. How is Joseph’s frame of reference changed? What do the pictures on the wall in Joseph’s room signify? What do pictures in the background signify? Why does Joseph shut himself in a darkened room?