Web 2.0: Online Applications

All assignments for the Web 2.0: Online Applications class are posted here.

The Fallacy of Authorial Intent

I find it odd to start off my blog with a post concerning a tenant of New Criticism when I typically have no love of this theory, but there is one helpful piece of information which I believe we glean from New Criticism, that being that authorial intent is a fallacy of logic.  Too often, I hear students saying, "But what if the author just wanted the curtains to be blue because I like blue curtains!"  This is a simplistic view of the nature of communication and reading at best.  First, to argue for authorial intent is to imagine oneself in the mind of the author.  Since none of us are mind readers, we cannot know what the author was truly thinking.  We do not read in order to figure out what the author was trying to say because we simply cannot know; we read in order to figure out what the text is actually saying.  Second, to argue for authorial intent is to deny the reader agency in the act of communication.  Despite common belief, communication is not active for the speaker, passive for the listener.  Instead, communication is active for both parties.  It's obvious how communication is active for the speaker, but perhaps not so much for the listener, so let me explain.  When a listener (or reader) is engaged in conversation, they are constantly having to analyze and process the information being given to them.  A good listener takes nothing at face value, but instead considers the information they are given and how it relates to the listener, the situation, or even the world around them.  The listener's brain should be just as active as the speaker's mouth.  The same is true for reading and writing.  The reader's brain should be just as active as the writer's pen.  

Remember, kids, the only way that authorial intent can shape your understanding of a text is your perceived notions of authorial intent.

For more information:

John Green states the case for active reading beautifully

Wikipedia article on the basic definition of authorial intent and how it relates to various literary theories.