intentionality and notoriety
Granville Ganter
gganter at email.gc.cuny.edu
Fri Feb 9 16:41:19 CST 1996
Intentionality seems to me to be the most abused concept in recent
literary theory. Of course, it is silly to hang an argument on what you
thought Shakespeare "really meant." Thanks Wimsatt and Beardsley for
their edicts/assertions about this in "The Intentional Fallacy."
At the same time, --contra Wimsatt-- I think it is
impossible to construct any argument about any author without dragging in
some concept of somebody's intention and/or motive. It's rather built
into the grammar of our sentences.
gg
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list