Unveiling Aesthetic Interpretations: The Author's Intent and Postulated Meanings

1. Aesthetics: Contemporary Theories

2. Last Week • Frank Sibley on Aesthetic Concepts (Reading 43)

3. Aesthetic Terms • E.g. unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless, serene, sombre, dynamic, powerful, vivid, delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic, graceful, dainty, elegant.

4. Non-Aesthetic • E.g. red, noisy (non-metaphorical), square, curved, oval, uses impasto, unframed, mixed media.

5. According to Sibley • Appreciating aesthetic qualities (of art, natural world, etc.) requires taste (i.e. an ability to notice or discern)

6. Perception • graceful because of that particular curve • But disanalogy with colour perception – we defend aesthetic judgements by talking! • Talking sometimes gets others to see the aesthetic qualities

7. This Week • Artists Intentions…their relevance to interpreting works of art…

8. The Intentional Fallacy • Wimsatt and Beardsley • Supposed Romantic fallacy of focusing on author psychology • The poem belongs to the public… • Appeal to intentions either misleading or redundant… • (cf Stanley Cavell - boxer)

9. Scrutiny vs Retrieval • Polar opposites • = Wimsatt vs Wollheim • Nehamas on the postulated author is somewhere in between

10. Nehamas – Postulated Author • Critical of Radical Pluralism of Deconstructionists (e.g. Derrida) • Deconstructionists say we make our own meaning of ‘orphaned’ texts – nothing to discover…

11. Nehamas • Just because many readings possible, doesn’t mean they all have the same status • N advocates critical monism • Ideal interpretation (which would answer all questions about that text)

12. Postulated Author • Distinct from historical author • Author postulated as historically plausible hypothesis about creator…what the author could have meant • In understanding a text understand an action…