Re: Authorial Intent

The new critics were big on squashing authorial intent ( In l948,
Wimsatt and Beadseley wrote about "the intentional fallacy" and
argued that constructing an interpretation of a text based on
author's intended meaning was wrong. I'm working with a very talented
student who is not as concerned with interpretation and meaning when
he thinks about artistic intention so much as thinking that the
artist's way of seeing something as art is integral to it being art.
I like the idea. I'm not saying we can know Salinger's specific and
intended meaning, but I do think we get a sense of Salinger's art and
his way of seeing characters and stories as his vision of literature
and art. In other words, his intention to create does affect what we
experience. Understanding something of Salinger's intentions may
indeed help deepen our own experiences with his art.

will

-- 
	Will Hochman
Associate Professor of English
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515
203 392 5024
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
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