Nah, Scottie, it was actually good old formalists of the generation prior to the one that spread the current French disease around (actually, YOUR generation, Scottie :) ) that abandoned the idea of authorial intent. Jim In a message dated 8/2/99 3:40:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time, rbowman@indigo.ie writes: << '... The point is - as Anna's anecdote illustrates - ...' What Anna's anecdote illustrates is the pathetic aping by the American educational establishment of chi-chi French literary theory - & the slavish adherence to the same by a whole generation of Americans (&, sadly, Ozzies) for whom conformity of thought is, evidently, the highest good. Scottie B. >>