Intentionalist Interpretation

"William Irwin's Intentionalist Interpretation is a very useful defense of the importance of authors' intentions to literary interpretation, a view generally incompatible with reigning critical orthodoxies, first New Critical and later Deconstructionist, for at least the last half century, but lately reasserted. I especially appreciated the judicious, sympathetic, but not uncritical discussions of writers in the Continental tradition such as Foucault and Gadamer--discussions that help to show the possibility of fruitful dialogue between them and philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition."-Gary Iseminger Carleton College, Minnesota "Irwin puts forth a clear, cohesive, carefully conceived and interesting theory of the interpretation of texts. It is an intentionalist theory which differs in substantive ways from its predecessors. Along the way, Irwin also illuminates a number of core issues from the distinction between descriptive and normative hermeneutics and the alleged death of the author to the status and interpretation of literary, legal and philosophical texts. A very helpful contribution to an ongoing debate."-David Weberman Fellow in Law and Philosophy, Harvard Law School

WILLIAM IRWIN is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is the author of scholarly articles and reviews on hermeneutics, Sartre, and philosophical pedagogy. He has edited a collection of essays entitled Seinfeld and Philosophy.

Preface Normative and Descriptive Approaches to Hermeneutics: How Should We Interpret? How Do We Interpret? A Critical Survey of Author Constructs: Does It Matter Who Is Speaking? A Defense of an Intentionalist Approach: Urinterpretation Gadamer's Hermeneutics: Descriptive and Normative Conclusions and Implications Selected Bibliography Index