Intention Interpretation

"...an excellent and comprehensive discussion of a debate that was initiated in this century in William Wimsatt's and Monroe C. Beardsley's influential article 'The Intentional Fallacy.'...this is a splendidly conceived and very useful collection of essays. Readers will want to take issue with the arguments of individual authors, but this is to be expected in a volume at the cutting edge of a fertile philosophical controversy." David Novitz, The Philosophical Quarterly "This is a timely book appearing as it does when postmodernist views of the death of the author are disappearing quickly from the scene. As a collection it exemplifies the best work that is being done on this problem at the moment, and it will no doubt inspire further debate." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism "[T]his volume contains important articles illuminating the central debate over the role and relevance of authorial intentions in literary interoperation." British Journal of Aesthetics

Gary Iseminger, William H. Laird Professor of Philosophy and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College, has published several other books and many articles in leading philosophical periodicals. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and the board of officers of the American Philosophical Association.

Preface Introduction 1. In Defense of the Author - E.D. Hirsch, Jr. 2. The Authority of the Text - Monroe C. Beardsley 3. Robust Relativism - Joseph Margolis 4. The Impossibility of Intentionless Meaning - Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels 5. Interpretation, Intention, and Truth - Richard Schusterman 6. An Intentional Demonstration? - Gary Isminger 7. Art, Intention, and Conversation - Noel Carroll 8. Wittgensteinan Intentions - Colin Lyas 9. Intention and Interpretation: Hirsch and Margolis - Michael Krausz 10. Interpreting with Pragmatist Intentions - Richard Shusterman 11. Irony, Metaphor, and the Problem of Intention - Daniel O. Nathan 12. Allusions and Intentions - Goran Hermeren 13. Intention and Interpretation: A Last Look - Jerrold Levinson Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index of Names