Episode 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part One)

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Mark Linsenmayer

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2018

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On four essays about how to interpret artworks: "The Intentional Fallacy" by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and "Against Theory" by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that to just ask the author? Most of these guys say no, and that's supposed to reveal something about the nature of meaning.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Partially examine life relies on your support.
0:02.3	To find out how to help, in ways that are cheap or even free for you, check out partiallyexaminedlife.com slash support.
0:08.4	You are listening to the Partially examined life, a philosophy podcast by some guys who are set on doing philosophy for living, but then thought better of it.
0:22.9	Our question for episode 189 is,
0:26.3	do the author's intentions determine the meaning of an artwork, and we read four essays,
0:31.2	the Intentional Falsacy by Wimmsott and Beardsley, 1946,
0:35.0	the death of the author by Roland Barthes, 1967,
0:38.5	what is an author by Michel Foucault, 1969,
0:41.9	and against theory by Stephen Neb and Walter Ben Michaels, 1982.
0:46.3	For links to all of these, and more information, please check out partiallyexaminedlife.com.
0:50.6	This is Mark Linton-Meier, whose intent is seldom quite the same as the contents of my utterance in Medicine Wisconsin.
0:56.4	This is Seth Paskin, giving you permission to interpret anything I say or do in any way that you wish in Austin, Texas.
1:03.2	This is Wesaw and absenting myself by presenting myself from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1:09.2	This is Dylan Casey, full of intentionless meaning in Medicine Wisconsin.
1:14.2	Since I moved, I'm no longer in middle-ten Wisconsin.
1:16.9	Congratulations.
1:19.4	Did you move into the big city?
1:21.2	No, I didn't move downtown.
1:22.6	We were considering that in the list of things, but it was a little bit unintended to move when we did.
1:28.9	They discovered their old house was haunted.
1:33.7	You got to get out when the mirror says,
1:36.2	get out, you get out.
	...

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