But to that extent, you can *never* say "Book X was written about Y". You can only say "The author of Book X says it was written about Y" or "Many critics interpret Book X to be about Y."
The problem with authorial intent is that you have: 1. What the author intended when he or she wrote the book 2. What the author remembers as having intended 3. What the author decides to tell people he or she intended 4. The book as it exists, regardless of (1)
Since I don't care about (1), and (2) and (3) make intent completely unknowable with any accuracy, we might as well focus on (4). (4) doesn't exist in a vacuum (there's the cultural and historical context in which the reader lives and reads, and which the reader believes the book was written and published in, and all other kinds of sociocultural and material contexts), but it's *knowable* in a way intent just *isn't*.
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Date: 2007-06-05 03:29 am (UTC)The problem with authorial intent is that you have:
1. What the author intended when he or she wrote the book
2. What the author remembers as having intended
3. What the author decides to tell people he or she intended
4. The book as it exists, regardless of (1)
Since I don't care about (1), and (2) and (3) make intent completely unknowable with any accuracy, we might as well focus on (4). (4) doesn't exist in a vacuum (there's the cultural and historical context in which the reader lives and reads, and which the reader believes the book was written and published in, and all other kinds of sociocultural and material contexts), but it's *knowable* in a way intent just *isn't*.