Quote:
Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Tolkien's professional life was devoted to literature that for the most part was anonymous. So questions of authorial intent, psychology, purpose were irrelevant. The text's the thing wherein to catch the conscience of the reader.
|
Indeed. Would that we all had anonymous manuscripts to play with.
But with the knowledge of the author, and the in depth knowledge of his life, are we obliged to take his life into account when we talk about his work?
I say no, clearly, we are not. Not obliged, that is to say. However taking his life into account can give us new insight, if we want it. Or we can ignore his life and look at the work as an independent entity, singular unto itself.
In that same way, we can gain new insight by approaching literature via different avenues of literary theory and criticism, but only if we want to, only if the question 'what if?' has us willing to suspend our disbelief in the validity of certain approaches long enough to consider what we might learn from them if, for a time, we think of them with complete seriousness.