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The Intentional Fallacy and Its Critics
How a 1946 Essay Shaped Modern Literary Criticism

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About this book:

The Intentional Fallacy and Its Critics Discover how a single 1946 essay ignited a seventy‑year intellectual firestorm that still shapes the way we read, judge, and create literature. *The Intentional Fallacy and Its Critics* traces the birth of Wimsatt and Beardsley’s radical claim—that an author’s intention is irrelevant to a work’s meaning—and follows its reverberations through New Criticism, continental hermeneutics, legal theory, feminist and psychoanalytic critique, and today’s debates over AI‑generated texts and algorithmic reading.

Through clear, engaging prose, this book reveals why the clash over authorial intent matters far beyond the classroom: it touches on questions of artistic autonomy, cultural power, and the very nature of meaning in a digital age. Whether you’re a literature student, a philosophy enthusiast, or a curious reader wondering why we argue about “what the author really meant,” you’ll find a compelling roadmap through the major thinkers—from Barthes and Foucault to Hirsch and contemporary cognitive poets—who have kept the conversation alive.

Step into the heart of one of the most enduring debates in modern thought and see how a mid‑century argument continues to dictate how we interpret everything from Shakespeare’s sonnets to the latest AI‑written poem. *The Intentional Fallacy and Its Critics* is your essential guide to understanding why the struggle over intent is, and always will be, central to how we make sense of the written word.

Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 The Landscape of American Criticism Before 1946
  • Chapter 2 Genesis of an Idea: Wimsatt, Beardsley, and the Sewanee Review
  • Chapter 3 Anatomy of the Fallacy: Unpacking the Core Argument
  • Chapter 4 Public vs. Private Evidence: Defining the Boundaries of the Text
  • Chapter 5 The Ghost in the Poem: Romanticism and the Authorial Myth
  • Chapter 6 Early Reactions and the New Critical Hegemony
  • Chapter 7 The Sister Thesis: The Affective Fallacy and the Reader
  • Chapter 8 Ordinary Language Philosophy and the Intentional Problem
  • Chapter 9 E.D. Hirsch Jr. and the Defense of Validity in Interpretation
  • Chapter 10 Hermeneutics Strikes Back: Intentionalism in Continental Thought
  • Chapter 11 "The Death of the Author": Roland Barthes and the French Challenge
  • Chapter 12 What Is an Author? Foucault's Discursive Function
  • Chapter 13 Deconstruction and the Instability of Intent
  • Chapter 14 Psychoanalytic Critiques: The Unconscious Mind of the Text
  • Chapter 15 Marxist and Materialist Perspectives on Authorial Agency
  • Chapter 16 Feminist Interventions: Rescuing the Suppressed Author
  • Chapter 17 Intentionalism on Trial: The Fallacy in Legal Interpretation
  • Chapter 18 Aesthetic Philosophy and the Pragmatics of Meaning
  • Chapter 19 Analytic Philosophy of Art: Hypothetical Intentionalism
  • Chapter 20 Reader-Response Theory and the Relocation of Meaning
  • Chapter 21 Genetic Criticism and the Archival Turn
  • Chapter 22 Cognitive Poetics: Inferring Mind in the Literary Experience
  • Chapter 23 The Digital Humanities and Algorithmic Reading
  • Chapter 24 Neo-Intentionalism in the Twenty-First Century
  • Chapter 25 The Enduring Legacy of a Seventy-Year Debate
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Author:

Judith N. Brooks

Published By:

MixCache.com Extended Catalog

Type:

Nonfiction

Date Published:

September 1, 2026

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