Second, meaning is contextual. If you change the context, you often change the meaning.
第二，意义跟语境有关。语境不同，意思也不同。
And last, meaning requires reader competency.
最后，意义需要读者的理解力。
Texts constructed as literature have their own ways of expressions or sometimes we say styles.
成为文学作品的文本，有自己的表达方式，有时我们说这是风格。
And the more we know of them, the more we can understand the text.
我们对这些了解得越多，就越能理解文本。
Consequently, there is in regard to the question of meaning, the matter of reader competency as it is called the experience and knowledge of comprehending literary texts.
这样，在意义这方面，就出现了读者的理解力这个问题，也可以叫做理解文学文本的经验或知识。
Your professors might insist that you practice and improve competency in reading and they might also insist that you interpret meaning in the context of the whole work.
教授可能会主张阅读时练习和提高理解力，他们也可能主张整个作品的语境下解释意义。
But you may have to learn other competencies too.
但你可能也需要学习其他能力。
For instance, in reading Mulk Raj Anand's The Untouchables you might have to learn what the social structure of India was like at that time,
例如，在阅读穆尔克·拉吉·安纳德（Mulk Raj Anand）的《不可接触的贱民》时你可能需要了解当时印度的社会结构是什么样子的，
what traditions of writing were in practice in India in the early 1930s,
20世纪30年代早期印度的写作传统是什么，
what political, cultural and personal influences Mulk Raj Anand came under when constructing the imaginative world of the short novel.
在构建短篇小说的想象世界时，穆尔克·拉吉·安纳德受到什么样的政治，文化和个人影响。
Ok, you may see that this idea that meaning requires competency in reading in fact brings us back to the historically situated understandings of an author and his works
好，你可能会发现，意义需要有阅读能力这个想法，实际上让我们回想起，在历史背景中理解作者和他的作品，
as we mentioned earlier in this lecture, to different conventions and ways of reading and writing
像前边讲的，回想起不同的读写传统和方式，
and to the point that meaning requires a negotiation between cultural meanings across time, culture, class, etc.
回想起那个观点，即：意义需要文化意义跨越时间、文化、阶级等达成一致。
As readers, you have in fact acquired a good deal of competency already but you should acquire more.
作为读者，你事实上已经掌握了足够的能力，但是你应该掌握更多能力。
The essential point of this lecture is that meaning in literature is a phenomenon that is not easily located,
这一节课的重点在于，文学中的意义是一种不容易定位的现象，
that meaning is historical, social and derived from the traditions of reading and thinking and understanding of the world that you are educated about.
它的意义是历史的、社会的，来源于你阅读、思考和理解所了解的世界的方式。
Thank you for your attention!
谢谢大家!