In Theories of the Text (Greetham
1999), D. C. Greetham begins
by observing that the word “text” derives from the Latin texere, which means “to weave, join together, plait, braid”
and therefore “to construct, fabricate, build, or compose.” “Text,” he goes on to say, “is thus both literal and concrete
on the one hand – the physical woven text – and figurative and
conceptual on the other: a work of art and both the technical and imaginative
procedures whereby this work is brought forth.” (26) Text understood in
this way covers a range of phenomena, from the most concrete and material
aspects of expression to the most abstract and ideal aspects of content and
meaning.