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authorial intent
It just occurred to me that it would be really easy in this day and age to put together a portfolio of online and offline writings by creators to show students how impossible it is to get at authorial intent as any meaningful way of interpreting the text. (I don't deny the you can get it authorial intent as a meaningful way of interpreting the authors, nor do I deny that some might find it fruitful to analyze the disjunction between stated authorial intent and the text as it stands. I just find neither of these interesting from a literary criticism point of view.)
But these days, creators of texts are so willing to talk about their intentions that would be really easy to let students analyze a series of texts, make their own judgments, and then read stated authorial intent. Example: give them a series of texts whose creators have claimed to have major feminist intent but where the text itself is a mixed bag, such as Buffy, or (far worse) Veronica Mars. Or how about His Dark Materials, together with an essay by Pullman in which he explains how the trilogy brought down the kingdom of god? (/me pets poor Pullman on the head) Or a book by one of the many authors who has shown his or her ass on the Internet over the last few years -- because some of them have written quite thoughtful, kyriarchy-challenging books? Or the Twilight series, along with Stephenie Meyer explaining how feminist her books are, how much they celebrate her female characters' freedom of choice?
I feel like this could potentially be really fruitful, in helping students to understand that while what authors say might be interesting, it's not a useful way of analyzing the text in hand.
But these days, creators of texts are so willing to talk about their intentions that would be really easy to let students analyze a series of texts, make their own judgments, and then read stated authorial intent. Example: give them a series of texts whose creators have claimed to have major feminist intent but where the text itself is a mixed bag, such as Buffy, or (far worse) Veronica Mars. Or how about His Dark Materials, together with an essay by Pullman in which he explains how the trilogy brought down the kingdom of god? (/me pets poor Pullman on the head) Or a book by one of the many authors who has shown his or her ass on the Internet over the last few years -- because some of them have written quite thoughtful, kyriarchy-challenging books? Or the Twilight series, along with Stephenie Meyer explaining how feminist her books are, how much they celebrate her female characters' freedom of choice?
I feel like this could potentially be really fruitful, in helping students to understand that while what authors say might be interesting, it's not a useful way of analyzing the text in hand.
Re: Here via metafandom
But how would you even begin to analyse a building without understanding its context? The very fact of knowing if it is a church or a house is to be saying something about its creators intent. Right down to the smallest detail of decoration or function, you can only understand it through understanding the historical context that created those traditions and therefore how this individual building deviates from it. That is to know something of intent. For many great buildings we don't even know the architect's name, let alone have a written testimony of what he wanted to achieve, but that doesn't mean his intent doesn't run through every facet of the final construction. To ignore that and try to respond to the building solely as an aesthetic object is not just trivial it is impossible, since the viewer's own aesthetic judgement will itself be formed by many of the same considerations. So if you are going to accept the viewer's or reader's cultural context, why reject the creator's?
Re: Here via metafandom
Because here is the room where my bed fits, and here is the room where my dining room table looks really beautiful in the sunlight, and here's the room that has a lot of blank wall space for my bookshelves.
When people move into churches, when factories are converted into apartments, when convenience stores are converted into schools, the original purpose of the building often has an effect. When factories are converted into apartments, those apartments usually have very high ceilings and enormous windows.
The creator's intent presumably had influence over why there are enormous windows, but if I'm living in the house, all I care about is how much light those windows let in.
Re: Here via metafandom