The Origin of the Discussion of Author’s Intention in American Criticism and Philosophy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22240/sent32.01.060Keywords:
author’s intention, intentionalism, anti-intentionalism, meaning, hermeneutics, intentionalityAbstract
The article deals with the origin and formation of debating positions in American criticism and philosophy. It analyzes “Intentional Fallacy” by W. Wimsatt and M. Beardsley. as well as E.D. Hirsch’s texts concerning the idea of objective interpretation which initiated this discussion.
In fact, both positions are limited because of their normative and ahistorical character. Both sides try to regulate interpretation. Wimsatt and Beardsley lose the historical place of a text, whereas Hirsch reduces the historical place of an interpreter.
Anti-intentionalism of Wimsatt and Beardsley relies on interpretative practice of American New Criticism with its principle of work’s autonomy. Despite the article’s empirical character, its important outcome is negation of subjectivity of meaning, and formulation of premises of its intersubjective understanding.
Hirsch affirms the invariability of work’s meaning and with this purpose (1) identifies it with the author’s intention binding it with the notion of intentionality and author’s horizon-context (based on Husserl and Dilthey), (2) introduces the distinction between meaning and significance (based on Frege and Saussure). Despite the contradictions of Hirsch’s positions both in understanding these ideas and in his own conclusions, his merit is the statement of the problem of meaning in general and extending the discussion into the territory of hermeneutics and philosophy of literature.References
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Brooks, C. (2001). The Formalist Critics. In V. B. Leitch et al., (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (pp. 1366-1371). New York & London: W.W. Norton and Company.
Burke, S. (1998). The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP.
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Daiches, D. (1962). The New Criticism. In R. E. Spiller, (Ed.), A Time of Harvest. American Literature 1910-1960 (pp. 95-110). New York: Hill and Wang.
Danto, A. C. (1984). The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art. New York: Columbia UP.
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Eliot, T. S. (2004). Tradition and the Individual Talent. In A. Hazard, S. Leroy, (Ed.), Critical Theory Since Plato (pp. 807-810). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
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Iseminger, G. (1995). Intention and Interpretation. (G. Iseminger, Ed.) Philadelphia: Temple UP.
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Mitscherling, J. A. (2004). The Author's Intention. (J.A. Mitscherling, T. DiTommaso, & Aref Nayad, Eds.). Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books.
Nowak, M. (2011). The Complicated History of Einfühlung. Argument. Biannual Philosophical Journal, 1(2), 301-326.
Saussure, F. de. (1995). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot.
Staten, H. (2010). Art as Techne, or The Intentional Fallacy and the Unfinished Project of Formalism. In G. L. Hagberg, W. Jost, (Eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature (pp. 420-437). Chichester, U.K. & Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444315592.ch22
Stecker, R. (2010). Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. An Introduction. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Wimsatt, W. K. (1954). The verbal icon: studies in the meaning of poetry. Lexington: UP of Kentucky.
Wellek, R., Warren, A. (1949). Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company.
Brooks, C. (2001). The Formalist Critics. In V. B. Leitch et al., (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (pp. 1366-1371). New York & London: W.W. Norton and Company.
Burke, S. (1998). The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP.
Chapman, S. (2009). Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language. (S. Chapman, C. Routledge, Eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP.
Daiches, D. (1962). The New Criticism. In R. E. Spiller, (Ed.), A Time of Harvest. American Literature 1910-1960 (pp. 95-110). New York: Hill and Wang.
Danto, A. C. (1984). The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art. New York: Columbia UP.
De Man, P. (1971). Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism. New York: Oxford UP.
Eliot, T. S. (2004). Tradition and the Individual Talent. In A. Hazard, S. Leroy, (Ed.), Critical Theory Since Plato (pp. 807-810). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Frege, G. (1892). Über Sinn und Bedeutung. In Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik. (Bd. 100, SS. 25-50). Leipzig: [s.n.].
Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP.
Hirsch, E. D. Jr. (1967). Validity in interpretation. New Haven: Yale UP.
Hirsch, E. D. Jr. (2001). Objective Interpretation. In V. B. Leitch et al., (Eds.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (pp. 1684-1708). New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co.
Holub, R. (1995). Hermeneutics. In R. Selden, (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Vol. 8: From Formalism to Poststructuralism (pp. 255-288). Cambridge & New York: Cambridge UP.
Hulme, T. E. (1936). Speculations: Essays on Humanism and the Philosophy of art. (H. Read, Ed.). London: Kegan Paul, Trech, Trubner & Co.
Iseminger, G. (1995). Intention and Interpretation. (G. Iseminger, Ed.) Philadelphia: Temple UP.
Krausz, M. (2002). Is there a single right interpretation? (M. Krausz, Ed., with an introd.). University Park: Pennsylvania State UP.
Levinson, J. (1996). The pleasures of aesthetics: philosophical essays. (J. Levinson, Ed.). New York: Cornell UP.
Margolis, J. (1987). Philosophy looks at the Arts: Contemporary Readings in Aesthetics. (J. Margolis, Ed.). Philadelphia: Temple UP.
Margolis, J. (2009). Culture and Cultural Entities: Toward a New Unity of Science. Dordrecht & New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2554-8
Mitscherling, J. A. (2004). The Author's Intention. (J.A. Mitscherling, T. DiTommaso, & Aref Nayad, Eds.). Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books.
Nowak, M. (2011). The Complicated History of Einfühlung. Argument. Biannual Philosophical Journal, 1(2), 301-326.
Saussure, F. de. (1995). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot.
Staten, H. (2010). Art as Techne, or The Intentional Fallacy and the Unfinished Project of Formalism. In G. L. Hagberg, W. Jost, (Eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature (pp. 420-437). Chichester, U.K. & Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444315592.ch22
Stecker, R. (2010). Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. An Introduction. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Wimsatt, W. K. (1954). The verbal icon: studies in the meaning of poetry. Lexington: UP of Kentucky.
Wellek, R., Warren, A. (1949). Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company.
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Published
2015-06-16
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Yudin, A. (2015). The Origin of the Discussion of Author’s Intention in American Criticism and Philosophy. Sententiae, 32(1), 60–71. https://doi.org/10.22240/sent32.01.060
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