Intentional Fallacy & Affective Fallacy | Wimsatt & Beardsley | New Criticism | Literary Theory

Summary

This video explores two key concepts from New Criticism: intentional fallacy and affective fallacy, as introduced by Wimsatt and Beardsley. Intentional fallacy warns against trying to discern an author's intent from their personal life, while affective fallacy argues that a reader's emotional response does not determine a work's literary value. The video emphasizes New Criticism's focus on close reading, where only the text matters, independent of the author's biography or the reader's feelings. The host also explains the concept of an 'autotellic text,' a self-contained, unified literary work.

Takeaways

• 📘 New Criticism is an American literary approach that focuses on close reading of the text, disregarding external factors like the author's background or historical context.
• 🔍 The concept of the 'autotelic text' in New Criticism means that the text is complete and self-sufficient, needing no reference to the author's life or external circumstances.
• ✍️ Intentional Fallacy refers to the mistaken belief that a critic should try to discover the author's intentions behind a work, when the text itself should provide all necessary meaning.
• 📖 The belief that the author's life story or personal background is essential to understanding a text is considered incorrect in the New Criticism framework.
• 🧐 William K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley argue that it is impossible to fully understand an author’s true intentions, especially if they are no longer alive.
• 💡 Affective Fallacy describes the error of evaluating a text based on the emotional response it elicits in readers, which can vary based on personal experiences.
• ❌ Emotional reactions do not determine the literary value of a work; just because a work moves readers to tears does not mean it is a great piece of literature.
• 🔗 The feelings and sentiments expressed in a poem should be attributed to the speaker or narrator, not the poet, according to Wimsatt and Beardsley.
• 📚 The core belief of New Criticism is that the text alone is the primary focus for analysis, and both the author's intentions and the reader's emotional responses are irrelevant.
• 😊 The speaker briefly discusses personal reasons for a recent absence from creating content, mentioning recovering from COVID-19, and promises to be more active moving forward.

Q & A

What is the main focus of New Criticism?

New Criticism focuses on the close reading of the text itself, disregarding the author's historical background, life story, or the reader's emotional reactions. The text is viewed as a complete and unified entity.

What do New Critics mean by 'autotellic text'?

The term 'autotellic text' refers to the belief that a literary work is complete and self-contained, meaning the text itself holds all the meaning, without needing external context such as the author's background or reader's reactions.

Who coined the terms 'Intentional Fallacy' and 'Affective Fallacy'?

The terms 'Intentional Fallacy' and 'Affective Fallacy' were coined by American literary critics William K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley.

What is the concept of 'Intentional Fallacy'?

'Intentional Fallacy' refers to the mistaken belief that a critic should attempt to uncover the author's intention behind a literary work. Wimsatt and Beardsley argued that the intention, if present, is within the text itself, and examining the author's personal life or intentions is unnecessary.

Why do Wimsatt and Beardsley reject the idea of trying to find the author's intention?

They reject this idea because it's impossible to accurately determine the author's intention, especially if the author is no longer alive. Even if the author is alive, interviews or statements may not reveal their true intention.

What does 'Affective Fallacy' refer to?

'Affective Fallacy' is the mistaken belief that a literary work's value can be determined by the emotional response it evokes in readers. Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that emotions are subjective and influenced by the reader's own experiences, and should not be used to judge the quality of the work.

How do New Critics view the relationship between the text and the author's life?

New Critics believe that a text is independent of the author's life and personal experiences. The meaning of a text should be derived solely from the text itself, without considering the author's biography.

Why is the reader's emotional reaction not important in New Criticism?

According to New Criticism, the reader's emotional reaction is irrelevant because it is influenced by personal experiences, not by the intrinsic value or meaning of the text itself. The text should stand on its own, independent of how it emotionally affects the reader.

How does New Criticism differ from historical or biographical approaches to literature?

New Criticism differs by ignoring the author's historical context, life events, and external factors. In contrast, historical or biographical approaches consider the author's background and the cultural context when interpreting a literary work.

What are the main works by Wimsatt and Beardsley associated with these concepts?

Wimsatt and Beardsley's most important work is 'The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry,' which includes essays on 'Intentional Fallacy' and 'Affective Fallacy.'

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Intentional and Affective Fallacies in New Criticism

In this opening paragraph, the speaker introduces the concepts of 'intentional fallacy' and 'affective fallacy,' which are key terms in New Criticism, coined by William K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley. The video sets the stage to discuss these terms in relation to close reading of literary texts, where the author's background, the historical context, or the reader's emotional response is considered irrelevant. The speaker encourages viewers to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon for updates.

05:01

🧐 The Emergence of New Criticism and Its Focus on Textual Autonomy

This paragraph dives into the core beliefs of New Criticism, which emerged in America. New Criticism advocates for 'close reading' of the text itself, dismissing the relevance of the author's biography, historical context, and the reader's personal reactions. The text is viewed as an 'autotelic' or self-contained entity, meaning that it holds a unified identity independent of external factors. The paragraph further introduces Wimsatt and Beardsley's work, particularly their significant contribution through the book *The Verbal Icon*, which contains the essays on intentional and affective fallacies.

❌ The Intentional Fallacy: Avoiding the Author's Intentions

The term 'intentional fallacy' refers to the mistaken belief that a critic should seek the author's intention when interpreting a text. Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that if an author is deceased, it is impossible to determine their true intent. Even if an author is alive, any statements regarding their intentions cannot be entirely trusted. Therefore, critics should focus solely on the text rather than investigating the author's life or personal clues. The author's intention, if present, is already embedded within the text.

🗣️ Intentional Fallacy: Separating the Poet from the Speaker

Wimsatt and Beardsley assert that the emotions and sentiments expressed in a poem should not be confused with the poet's own feelings. Instead, these should be attributed to the speaker or narrator of the poem. For example, when analyzing Coleridge's *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner*, critics should not assume that the emotions expressed are Coleridge's personal feelings, but rather those of the poem's speaker. This supports their argument that searching for the author's personal intent is irrelevant to literary criticism.

💔 The Affective Fallacy: Reader’s Emotional Reaction vs. Literary Value

The 'affective fallacy' highlights the error of confusing the emotional response of the reader with the literary value of the text. Wimsatt and Beardsley emphasize that just because a reader feels emotionally moved by a text does not mean it holds greater literary merit. The emotional reaction is more reflective of the reader's personal life experiences and mood rather than the quality of the work itself. Thus, the emotional impact should not be used as a measure of a text's greatness.

📖 The Text as an Independent and Unified Entity

In this paragraph, the speaker reiterates that Wimsatt and Beardsley believed the text is autonomous, complete in itself, and independent of both the author’s intentions and the reader's reactions. The text should be analyzed on its own merit through close reading. The speaker summarizes the key points discussed in the video, including the definitions of intentional and affective fallacies, the importance of the autotelic nature of the text, and New Criticism’s emphasis on the text's independence.

💬 Closing Remarks and Personal Update

The video concludes with the speaker providing a personal update, explaining their absence from the channel due to a COVID-19 infection and post-recovery challenges. The speaker expresses gratitude to the audience for their patience and reassures them that regular content will resume. The video ends with a call to stay connected on social media platforms and a heartfelt thank you to viewers for their support.

Keywords

💡New Criticism

New Criticism is a literary theory that emerged in America, focusing on the close reading of texts without considering external factors such as the author's background, historical context, or reader's emotions. The video highlights that New Critics believe the text itself is the only relevant source for interpretation, and this concept forms the foundation for discussing intentional and affective fallacies.

💡Intentional Fallacy

Intentional Fallacy refers to the mistaken belief that a critic should try to discern the author's intention behind a literary work. The video explains that Wimsatt and Beardsley argue this is an erroneous approach because the author's intention, if present, is embedded in the text itself. Exploring an author’s personal life or interviews does not provide a reliable understanding of the text’s meaning.

💡Affective Fallacy

Affective Fallacy is the belief that the emotional response of readers determines the value of a literary work. Wimsatt and Beardsley argue in the video that such reactions are subjective and dependent on the reader's personal experiences, and they should not be used to judge the quality of a text. This concept emphasizes the separation of reader emotions from literary criticism.

💡Autotellic Text

An autotellic text is one that is complete and independent, requiring no external context such as the author's life or reader's reaction to be fully understood. In the video, this concept is key to New Criticism, where the text alone provides all necessary meaning, reflecting the belief that the text exists as a unified whole.

💡Close Reading

Close Reading is the analytical technique emphasized by New Critics, focusing solely on the details and structure of the text to derive meaning. The video underscores the importance of this method as it avoids external interpretations, making the text the primary source for critical analysis.

💡William K. Wimsatt

William K. Wimsatt is one of the American literary critics who, along with Monroe C. Beardsley, coined the terms intentional fallacy and affective fallacy. In the video, his work is central to explaining how New Criticism rejects the relevance of authorial intent and emotional responses in interpreting literary works.

💡Monroe C. Beardsley

Monroe C. Beardsley, in collaboration with Wimsatt, contributed to New Criticism and the concepts of intentional fallacy and affective fallacy. The video refers to his role in advancing the idea that the value and meaning of literature should come solely from the text itself, not from external influences like the author's intention or reader's emotions.

💡Verbal Icon

Verbal Icon is a seminal work by Wimsatt and Beardsley, containing key essays like 'The Intentional Fallacy' and 'The Affective Fallacy.' The video cites this book as a crucial source for understanding their theories about literary criticism, especially their arguments that the text alone holds meaning, independent of external factors.

💡Speaker/Narrator

In the context of New Criticism, the speaker or narrator in a text is distinct from the author, meaning that the thoughts, emotions, and experiences in the text should not be attributed to the author. The video uses the example of Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' to show how the emotions expressed in the poem belong to the speaker, not to Coleridge himself, supporting the idea that texts stand apart from their creators.

💡Historical Context

Historical Context refers to the time period, cultural, and social conditions in which a work was written, but New Critics argue this should not influence the interpretation of a literary text. The video emphasizes that New Criticism dismisses historical background, focusing only on the text, which challenges traditional methods of literary analysis that consider historical factors.

Highlights

Introduction to the video discussing intentional fallacy and affective fallacy in New Criticism.

Intentional and affective fallacies are terms coined by William Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley.

New Criticism focuses on close reading of texts, disregarding historical background, author biography, and reader reactions.

The text is considered autotelic in New Criticism, meaning it is complete in itself and independent of external factors.

Wimsatt and Beardsley's work 'The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry' includes essays on intentional fallacy and affective fallacy.

Intentional fallacy refers to the mistaken belief that critics can determine the author's intention behind a work through biographical or historical context.

It is impossible to determine the true intention of a long-deceased author, and even if an author is alive, interviews may not reveal the real intentions.

Critics should focus on the text itself, as the intention, if present, is found within the text.

The feelings expressed in a poem should be attributed to the speaker or narrator, not the poet personally.

Affective fallacy refers to the mistaken belief that the emotional response of readers determines the literary value of a text.

Readers' emotional reactions are influenced by their own moods and life experiences, not necessarily by the quality of the literary work.

The emotional impact of a literary work on readers should not be used to evaluate its greatness or quality.

Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that the text is independent of both the author's intention and the reader's emotional response.

The video explains that the text is a unified and complete identity, and critics should not rely on external factors for interpretation.

The creator of the video mentioned their absence due to COVID-19 but promises to be more consistent with future content.

Transcripts

hello everyone welcome to learning

literature with burba

in today's video we are going to talk

about intentional fallacy and effective

fallacy these are the terms associated

with new criticism and they're coined by

william kevin sad and monroe c beardsley

so if you haven't yet subscribed to our

channel then do subscribe to it and hit

the bell icon so that you never miss an

update

so before we talk about intentional

fallacy and effective fallacy let's take

a look at new criticism so new criticism

emerged in america it was the new way of

critiquing literary works that is why it

was called new criticism and new

criticism focused on close reading of

the text

so the new critics believed that the

historical background of the author the

society and culture during which the

author wrote the person a life story of

the author the author's own background

biography

nothing matters the reader's reaction to

the text does not matter the only thing

that matters is the text alone so only

the text matters

and therefore another term associated

with new criticism is autotellic text

the new critics believed that the text

is complete in itself it is a unified

identity every text is complete in

itself we do not need to refer to the

historical background of the author the

author's life story the reader's

reactions the cultural conditions

nothing matters only the text matters

and therefore the new critics focused on

close reading of the text

william k wimsatt and monroe cbhd went

to american literary critics their most

important work is the verbal icon

studies in the meaning of poetry where

we have the famous essays the

intentional fallacy and the affective

fallacy

so let's first take a look at the

intentional fallacy

now the word fallacy means mistaken

belief or false reasoning

the critic should never try to find the

intention of the poet behind writing a

particular poem

if there is any intention it is there in

the poem itself the critic should not

try to investigate

the author's life story or other

personal clues

in order to try to find out the

intention of the poet behind writing a

particular poem

so the belief

that there is an intention in the mind

of the poet while writing a poem

and that it is the critics job to find

out that intention

is actually a fallacy it is a mistaken

belief

it is not possible to find out the

intention of the author behind writing a

particular work

because if the author is not alive then

it is impossible to find out what was

the intention

because if we try to think why chaucer

wrote the canterbury tales we can never

find out the real intention of chaucer

we can only guess that

this can be the intention of chaucer but

these will only be guesses at the end of

the day

and if the author is alive then even by

taking interviews a critic can never be

sure that the author is telling the

truth that the author is revealing his

or her true intention behind writing a

particular work

therefore the critic should not waste

time by reading the personal life story

of the author

and trying to figure out what was the

intention of the author behind writing a

particular work it is a waste of time

and it is not the job of the critic

windsor and weirdly believed that the

life story of the author should be of

interest to the historian not to a

literary critic

wimpson and beardsley also believed that

the feelings and sentiments expressed in

the poem should not be attributed to the

poet but should be attributed to the

speaker or the narrator for example

coleridge wrote the rhyme of the ancient

marina but we should not say that

everything that is written in the poem

they are cholera's personal feelings and

sentiments no

we should say that these are the

feelings and sentiments of the speaker

of the poem

so that is what windsor and beardsley

meant by intentional fallacy

that the belief that there is an

intention in the mind of the poet while

writing a poem and that it is the

critics shocked to figure out that

intention

is a fallacy the intention if there is

there in the text itself the critic

should not read the author's personal

life story and try to find out what was

the intention of the author behind

writing a particular work

now we will look at the next term

affective fallacy

sometimes

readers get very much emotional while

reading a particular poem or a novel the

readers get emotionally affected they

get moved to tears even while reading a

novel or a poem

windsor and beardsley said

that just because some readers are

getting emotionally affected by a

particular work that does not mean it is

a great work of literature the value of

a literary work should never be confused

by the emotional

effect that it is arousing in readers

just because readers are getting

affected by the work emotionally that

does not mean it is a great literary

work

so that is what wimshurt and beardsley

meant by affective fallacy because they

say it that the reader's own mood and

life experiences

have a lot to do with how the reader is

reacting to a particular novel on a

particular poem it has nothing to do

with the text or the quality of the

literary work and therefore how the

reader is getting affected emotionally

to a particular literary work does not

mean that it is a great work of

literature and that is what wimsa and

blc meant by affective fallacy

so they said that the text is

independent of the

author and the reader the text is

autotellic it is and unified identity it

is complete in itself it is not

dependent on the author's intention it

is not dependent on how a reader is

reacting

while reading the literary work

so that was all for today's video where

we looked at these two concepts

intentional fallacy and effective

fallacy given by wimsatt and bhc we also

looked at

new criticism what is autotellic text

and the importance of closed reading

i'll be back very soon with a new video

on a literary work or a literary theory

now i was absent for quite some time and

that is because i was tested covered

positive i was not well i was having a

lot of post covet cuff and that is why

it was not present for one month here in

the channel and i missed all of you

thank you so much for hanging on and now

i will be quite regular with the videos

thank you so much do stay connected on

facebook and instagram and thank you so

much for watching

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