"The burden of this section is, then, an attack on the view that a text is a 'piece of language' and a defense of the notion that a text represents the determinate verbal meaning of the author," (Hirsch 19).
With the essay, many questions came to my mind. For example: How does anyone know what the author means, except the author himself, unless the author shares his true intentions with the public before he is dead? That would certainly save everyone else a lot of trouble in trying to interpret the meaning of what he wrote. But then, I guess there would be sort of a decline in the necessity of literary critics and their opinions the interpretation of a piece of literature. But how do we know if we're right? If the text "represents the determinate verbal meaning of the author," then there really is no need to try to interpret it, because wouldn't that mean one should just take the words at face value?
Comments (1)
I've always wonderered if even the author knows what they mean all of the time. It seems to me in my own life, if you ask me a certain question on Monday I will give you a different answer than I would on Friday. Even morning to afternoon my intentions and thoughts often vary.
Posted by James Lohr | February 5, 2009 4:08 PM
Posted on February 5, 2009 16:08