Terms Allegory Authorial Intention.pptVIP

How do we know what a work of literature is supposed to mean, or what its real meaning is? --meaning is what is intended by the author --meaning is created by and contained in the text itself --meaning is created by the reader. Does a work of literature mean what the author intended it to mean? if so, how can we tell? If all we have is the text, we have to speculate by reading other works by the same author by knowing more about what meanings seem to be common to works in that particular tradition, time and genre by knowing how the author and other writers and readers of that time read texts -- what their interpretive practices were by knowing what the cultural values and symbols of the time were. New Criticism W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley The Intentional Fallacy the intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of literary art. the authors work may have taken her in directions she did not originally consider and may have developed meanings which she did not intend and may not have recognized the works may contain cultural or symbolic meanings which are not fully clear to the author herself and may emerge only through historical or other cultural perspectives authors may not be conscious of all of the elements that make up their work. even if the author states intentions for the meaning of a work, that meaning is not privileged above other interpretations. When assigning meaning to a text, we must consider where that meaning is coming from. Theoretical Contextualization Author Reader Metaphors and Allegory metaphor and simile: an association between two (usually) dissimilar objects so that something is revealed about the nature of one of those objects. Her soft voice is music to my ears. My computer died yesterday. Today’s newspaper headlines stopped my heart. The setting sun painted the sky in reds and oranges. The word hand floats above your hand like a small cloud