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



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