English 60A: Contemporary Critical Theory

List of binary oppositions

Throughout the term, we've been looking to see how writers construct and deconstruct binary oppositions, pairs that quickly transmogrify into rigid hierarchies. To aid in our examination, we've begun to compile a list (though I hesitate to call it a "master" list) of binaries.

good / evil
original / copy
primary / secondary
inside / outside
reality / appearance
essence / accident
soul / body
pure / corrupted
father / son
male / female
speech / writing

At this point, you might want to notice how these pairs tend not merely to support but indeed to verify one another: men are superior to women, or so Genesis tells us, because men came first; speech is superior to writing, or so Plato tells us, because the spoken word is the original of which writing is a mere copy. See how that works? If so, you're ready for some more:

center / margins
normal / deviant
natural / unnatural
straight / gay
white / black
self / other
truth / fiction
philosophy / myth
sciences / humanities
classical / romantic
modern / postmodern
poet / critic
sex / gender
master / slave
teacher / student
faculty / staff
high culture / pop culture
the blues / rock and roll
rock and roll / disco
disco / techno
punk / grunge
movies / television
network TV / cable TV
Seinfeld / Friends
Friends / Suddenly Susan
base / superstructure
waking / dreaming
latent content / manifest content
the library / the web
Homer / Bart
Laverne / Shirley
the Skipper / Gilligan

Many thanks to Joe Tennis and J. P. Mohan for giving me a starting point for this list. Please let me know if you'd like to add (or link) to it.

WHAT NEXT?


revised October 1, 1997
mail to Tim Spurgin