Varieties of Authorial Intention

John Farrell is Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College, USA. He is also the author of Paranoia and Modernity and Freud’s Paranoid Quest.

“The Varieties of Authorial Intention is a book that literary scholars of every specialization would benefit from reading. It is one of the most down-to-earth and sensible books ever written about the study of literature. By exposing the contradictions and incoherence created by proponents of the textual fallacy, Farrell clears the way for a major improvement in the quality of thought in English departments.” (Leonard Neidorf, Studia Neophilologica, December, 2017)

• Preface.- Introduction: The Origins of an Intellectual Taboo.- Chapter One: Actions, Intentions, Authors, Works.- Chapter Two: Uncertainty, Indeterminacy, Omniscience, and Other Matters.- Chapter Three: Unconscious Intentions.- Chapter Four: Authorship and Literary Value.- Conclusion.-