In Response to Corey

In Response to Corey

I had read a previous response to this post, written by Brett, which I certainly agreed with. However, I also wanted to comment on a specific area of this same post.

“but to what harm does it cause fans of literature to have several different ways to analyze the work?”

By itself, I do not think it is very problematic to have multiple interpretations of a piece of literature. However, it think it is highly problematic for all interpretations to be viewed equally. In other words, I think that, when interpreting a piece of literature, certain factors need to be taken into account. Furthermore, the author’s intention needs to be one of these central factors. It is not as though there needs to be one, distinct, correct interpretation. However, I think that the author’s intention should certainly be brought into all considerations. In my view, if a reader interprets a certain work in a new way; and, this new interpretation could not have been something that the author considered when writing the piece; this consideration should not hold as much weight in discussions of that work. With that said, I do think it is fallacious to assume that author’s intentions are always the correct way to interpret the work, I think that these intentions should be the major factor when interpreting a work. Allowing any interpretation to hold the same way seems to have the same level of problematicity as labeling art as anything and everything. Allowing every interpretation to be accepted seems to make the process of interpreting works of literature minuscule in importance.