SHAKSPER 2002: Authorial Intention

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 01/25/02 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0182  Friday, 25 January 2002

From:           Laura Blankenship <blanken@uark.edu>
Date:           Thursday, 24 Jan 2002 11:54:17 -0600
Subject:        Authorial Intention

I'm hoping you fellow SHAKSPERians can help me win an argument with my
husband.  Well, maybe not win, but help him see my side.  He's a
computer scientist who's teaching a film course and we got into a huge
discussion about how much one should take into account the
director's/screenwriter's comments on the film.  New DVD's, of course,
have all this available.  I was arguing that we shouldn't consider it
much at all.  I, of course, used Shakespeare as an example since we
don't have his "commentary" on the plays and have to base our
interpretation on the text or perhaps cultural evidence.  But perhaps in
the case of modern film or even productions of Shakespeare, we should
consider the author's/director's commentary in our interpretation.  If
we suddenly found a host of letters or diaries that explained why
Shakespeare wrote what he did, what would we do with it?

Sincerely,
Laura Blankenship

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