what is the point of analysing it at all? You either end up just analysing the cultural context of the reader
This implies that you think the point of the text is to analyze cultural context. That may be true if you are a cultural critic, who is using the text to analyze a cultural or aesthetic moment. But in pure literary criticism it is absolutely possible to analyze the text for its own sake. which is not necessarily the same thing as a vacuum!
Analyzing children's literature makes it abundantly clear that a critic needs to think about the implied reader, and about the distance between the critic and the implied and actual readers. But if that's a very Wolfgang Iser way of looking at texts, I would also bring in Stanley Fish, and the reader's interpretive community is hugely important, especially when addressing the different effects texts have at different points in history.
since the authorial intent is the medium through which that cultural context is transmitted
No, the text is the medium through which the cultural context is transmitted. In fact, there are parts of the text conveying cultural context which have nothing to do with the author at all: the marketing history, the book packaging, the book design, etc.
Re: Also here via metafandom
This implies that you think the point of the text is to analyze cultural context. That may be true if you are a cultural critic, who is using the text to analyze a cultural or aesthetic moment. But in pure literary criticism it is absolutely possible to analyze the text for its own sake. which is not necessarily the same thing as a vacuum!
Analyzing children's literature makes it abundantly clear that a critic needs to think about the implied reader, and about the distance between the critic and the implied and actual readers. But if that's a very Wolfgang Iser way of looking at texts, I would also bring in Stanley Fish, and the reader's interpretive community is hugely important, especially when addressing the different effects texts have at different points in history.
No, the text is the medium through which the cultural context is transmitted. In fact, there are parts of the text conveying cultural context which have nothing to do with the author at all: the marketing history, the book packaging, the book design, etc.