Intentional fallacy

Literary critisism:

 

  International fallacy

                                         - by w.k. wimsalt.

[] Introduction:-

International fallacy (a false idea that many people believe is true) term used in 20th century literary critisism to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the internet or purpose of the artist who created it.

[] International   fallacy:-

  Intenational fallacy is a literary term that asserts that the meaning intended by the author of a literary work is not the only ,and perhaps not the most important, meaning of the piece the term was first used by w.k. wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in their essay "the intentional fallacy". The notion has became central to modern literary criticism and is an important part of what is known as the new criticism.

[] About critic:-

      William Kurtz wimsatt (1907- 1975) and Monroe Curtis Beardsley (1915- 1985) are bes known for their co-authership of " the intentional fallacy" and "the affective fallacy ", both the essays articulate what have come to be  considered the fundamental tenets of the American new criticism. In the first essay they describe the problem to judge a work  of art by assuming the 8ntent or purpose of artist who created it in the second error of judging  or evaluating a text on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader.

[] Summary of the  Intenational fallacy :-

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Intenational in literary work simply means what he intended , in order to judge poet's performance we must know what he intended. Intenational is design or plan in the author's mins or what made him write. Out of these, wimsatt and Beardsley make strong  arguments about the problem of author's intention 

A Poem does not ce on to existence by an accident . As professor stroll has remarked.

1.  A poem comes  out from a     head, not out of a hat:- 

A poem  does not come into existence by accident, the words of a poem as come out of a head , not out of a hat through the design or intention as a standard of poem , a critic should not judge the worth of the poet's performance.

2.How to find out what the part tried to do?:-

 One must ask how a critic expects to get an answer to the questions about intention , if the poet succeed in  doing it,them the poem itself shows what he was trying to do.

And if the poet did not succeed , then the poem is not adequate evidence.

The critic must go outside the poem  for evidence of an intention that did  not become effective in the poem 

The poet's aim must be judged at the moment of the creative act, that is to say, by the art of the poem itself.

3. A  poem should not mean but be:-

Judging a poem is like judging a pudding or a machine one demands that it work.

It's is only because on artifact to work a poem should not mean but be. A peom cam be only though it's meanings since its medium word's yet it is simply is in the sense that we have no excuse for inquiring what part is intended or meant.

Poetry is a feat of style by which a complex of meaning is handled all at one and success

Like lumps from pudding and bugs from machinery . In this respect poetry differs from practical messages.

Which are successful if and only if we correctly infor the inention. They are more abstract than poetry.

4.  The  meaning of poem personal and state of  soul:-

The meaning of a po expresses a personality or state of soul rather than a physical object like an apple. But even a short lyric poem is dramatic , the response of a speaker to a situation ,

If to the auther at all any by an act of biographical inference.

 

5. May better achieve his original intention by

 revision:-

 

 There is a sense in which an auther, but it is a very abstract sense.

He intended to write a better work , or a better work of a certain kind. And now has done it.

 

But it follows that his former concrete intention was not his intention.

[] Main Arguments:- 

The main argument on which essay is formulated rests upon the clash between romantic and modernist concept of literature. 

Romantics define it as "vehicle of personal expression" and modernist define it as "pure linguistic art". 

Wimsatt and Beardsley started by arguing that intentional Fallacy is a romantic phenomenon as it depends on expressionist aspects of poetry. 

[] Sublimity is the echo of the a great soul:- 

  

 The ananda k coomaraswamy is a critic has argued that there are two kind of inquirey about work of art. 1.The artist achieved his intentions,2.the work of art under the all 

      Also, Goethe, a German poet, playwright, novelist and critic, focused upon author's intention in order to perform"Constructive criticism" of text and sets three questions: "What did author set out to do?" "What his plan reasonable and sensible?" and "How far did he succeeded in carrying it out?".

                Similarly, Benedetto Croce stressed upon gazing work of art as author gazed it while producing it. i.e. stressed on "author's gaze" or "author's intention". In short, he focuses on looking the text with author's eye. 

                These pre-modernist beliefs were debased by new criticism intentionalists like Wimsatt, who saw work of art as a "Verbal Icon" that means the text speaks, it has its own soul and author is not required to give direction to the way of the reading the text. 

                T. S. Eliot, in "Tradition and Individual Talent" argued that the truthful criticism and sensetive appreciation of text is directed upon poetry, not poet. Critic's like C. S. Lewis and Tillyard also carry forward the same formulation in "The Personal Heresy". 

Oscar Wilde in "Picture of Dorain Gray" revealed the aim of art i.e. "relevant art" and "conceal artist" hense bestowing due importance and value to the text or art.

[] Dramatic speaker vs Author:-

     Furthering this argument, they tried to build a distinction between dramatic speaker and the author.

 Anti intentionalists claim that if poem is expression of personal emotions, then that emotions should not be confused with author's emotions, because they are emotions of "Dramatic speaker".

Beardsley affirmed that lyrical poems of Wordsworth are representational and not performing one. 

So one should focus on speaker and not in Wordsworth, because linguistic work has quality of being "self - sufficient linguistic entity" and poem is "Verbal Icon" which belongs to public domain and not to the poet.

[] Conclusion:-

To conclude, after the publication of "The Intentional Fallacy", poetic analysis was given more importance than biographical criticism focusing on internal evident. Intentional fallacy, a literary term asserts that the meaning intended by the author of a literary work is not the only, and perhaps not most important. The notion has become central to modern literary criticism and is an important part of what is known as the "New Criticism".

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