authorial intent

[deborah]

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.

Comments

Re: Here via metafandom

[lanjelin]

Why do you think it's impossible to know an author's intent? Many authors tells us what it is, sometimes in the very beginning of the story, depending on the work. In some cases, like Cervantes, it changed during the course of writing, but isn't knowing the original intent as well as the one that grew out of the writing both useful when analysing it?

I mean, it's not as if I'm saying that author's intent should take precedence over all other interpretations, or that it's always successful; it can give added insight, but it doesn't necessarily.

Believing one can actually discern the author's purpose often leads students to believe that anything they see in the text which might be interesting could only possibly be there because the author thought of it.

Not in my experience, but I'm a student and not a teacher. A part of our analysis is always about looking at what an author may have done unconsciously.

Moreover, it leads them to believe that interpretations which couldn't possibly have been by authorial intent (because of historical context, for example) are automatically invalid.

I suppose it would depend on the interpretation, but it seems self-evident that a text will have a different meaning if applied on a completely different era and society than that in which it was originally written. Knowing both should only enrich the experience of the text, I would think.

Looking at your examples, I think we probably use a very different model of analysis (and which level do you teach?). It's not so much that we use the author's intent as a tool, but rather another aspect to analyse. Sometimes it isn't discernible, but knowing it can shed light on certain choices in the text.

I don't teach my students to understand the purpose of the text, but the effect of it.

We study both. I suppose I just don't agree with the thought that a text can exist in a vacuum. Many works of fiction has grown out of conflict, experimentation, or the author's particular wish to make a statement. I don't see how ignoring that is useful.

what does it matter if the architect's purpose, or even the house's purpose, is that this room be a bedroom?

It matters if you want your bed to fit in it! Architects put different things in different rooms depending on what they plan them to be used for. Sometimes you disagree with the architects choices, but it's still useful to know where the main phone socket is located.

(Er, I hope I'm not sounding upset or aggressive here; tone is so hard to convey in long meta discussions. I'm just trying to have a nice discussion, that's all!)

Re: Here via metafandom

[diceytillerman]

It matters if you want your bed to fit in it!

Actually it doesn't. What matters is whether your bed does fit in, not what the architect meant. What matters, in fitting your bed into the room, are the size and shape of the room, and possibly other traits of the room -- all of which can be discerned by examining the room itself.

Deborah teaches literature in a Masters program. Her students are graduate students.

Re: Here via metafandom

[deborah]

Why do you think it's impossible to know an author's intent? Many authors tells us what it is, sometimes in the very beginning of the story

Oh, it's possible to know what the author has said his or her intent is. Certainly, you can collect all of the various speeches and writings by the author in which the intent is explained. But the author could be lying, could be mistaken, could be telling different stories to different audiences, could be heavily influenced by marketing. Lois Lowry changed her stated intent about what she meant by the end of The Giver, whether the characters live or die, as soon as she wrote a sequel. JK Rowling said, after the Harry Potter series had been completed, that Dumbledore had always been gay. Does either statement of intent add or subtract anything from a reader's own analysis and interpretation? Does Rowling's assertion that Dumbledore is a gay character trump readings of him as straight, or add any force to readings of him as gay? Does Lowry's eventual assertion that Jonas lives add any utility to a discussion of textual support for his living or dying?

No, is the answer. Those discussions might be useful in terms of analyzing the relationships of authors, texts, and the social constraints of marketing and business that surround them, but they don't add any insight to an analysis of the text.

what an author may have done unconsciously

Or what an author may not have done it all, but is in the text anyway. I don't think that Milton, consciously or unconsciously, put a feminist interpretation into Paradise Lost, but that doesn't mean I don't see it there.

which level do you teach?

Graduate students in literature.