The Literary Criticism Significance Of Intentional Fallacy

The New Criticism members Wimsatt and Beardsles analysed and criticized the intentional theory. In their opinions, literary criticism must take the text as the center,insist objecticism,so as to be scientific studies.Therefore,the intentional fallacy embraced all criticisms that were regarded as to look for evidences from external conditions of literature including biographical criticism,socio-historical criticism and psychological criticism.This thesis wants to find the significance of Theory of Intentional Fallacy to literary criticism.The preface will review the history of Theory of Intentional Fallacy.In specific illustration,first,this paper will prove it is responsible that the New criticism scolded the intentional theory as one kind of fallacy:one,the problem of defining the writer's identity and his intention makes difficult study the work according to the writer's experience and ideas;another,there is a malposition between the writer's intention and the meaning of the work.And the malposition proves that it is practicable to infer the writes's intention from the text;the other is the character of literary criticism.Literary criticism has its own object of study,and it is historical and subjective.Comparatively speaking,the study of the work can make literary criticism scientific.Second, this thesis wants to point out that the New Criticism is lopsided to regard the intentional theory as a fallacy.One,the defining of the writer's identity and his intention becomes more and more scientific;Two,with regard to litorary creation, the malposition between the writer's intention and the meaning of the work is of no significance unless it is compared with the consistence.After all, the work is created by the writer and the writer is under specific social and historical conditions.Then the intention and the meaning is consistant actually.And the extreme poiut of the death of the writer will be analysed.Three,the New Criticism ignored the comprehensive demand of literary criticism and literary psychology.They paid little attention to the relationship between the writer and the work and to other critical senses and methods, They opposed literary psychology.As a result,we can find their principle of science and reason.Finally, this thesis discusses the significance of the theory of the NewCriticism to literary criticism.lt is lopsided because it separates the text from the writer,However, it profoundly exposed the mistake of tradition literary criticism that the intentional theory ignored the work.The New Criticism expected to make literary criticism return to the noumenon,return to literary own character and principle. It is not only a revision to the studing method,but a guide to the notion of literary essence.