30 mar 2011

Jejune

"To the question, Why is Spanish theory jejune and uninfluential? a possible answer would be, paraphrasing Franz Kafka, that in Spain there is theory, plenty of theory, but not for us. "Us " here refers very generally to the ad hoc category of the postmodern cognitive subject."
--Joan Ramón Resina, "Spanish Theory and Criticism" (John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism).

Jejune is one of those words I have to look up each time I see it. I know it's a bad thing, but what exactly does it mean?:

1 naive, simplistic, and superficial : their entirely predictable and usually jejune opinions.
2 (of ideas or writings) dry and uninteresting : the poem seems to me rather jejune.

I think the first definition is what I take it to be most often. Other definitions identify it with the puerile, the juvenile, the inane.

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