AFFECTIVE FALLACY & INTENTIONAL FALLACY
{W.K.Wimsatt (1907-1975 )and Monroe C.Beardsley (1915 – 1985)}
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Affective Fallacy:
The phrase affective fallacy is a 20th century
concept used in the arts and the literary criticism. It refers to the idea for
judged mistaken that the value of art or literature is either entirely or at
least largely dependent upon the emotional effect especially on the audience or
reader. According to W.K. Wimsatt and M.C. Beardsley, it is the confusion
between the poem and its result.
According to W.K. Wimsatt, ‘The affective Fallacy’ is a
critical error of evaluating work of art in terms of its effect or its result
in the mind of audience. But significant effective theories of criticism can be
traced from Plato through Longinus to I.A. Richards; the fallacy of affective
criticism arises from a propensity to confuse the poem with its effect. David
Daiches has questioned this position by claiming that some form of legitimate
effectiveness is necessary, if the qualified reader is to avoid the ontological
fallacy of believing that a work of art fulfils its purpose and achieves its
value simply by being. He has suggested that real relationship exists between poetic
effect and poetic value that effectives can be saved from impressionistic and
relativism fallacies if the reader traces potential effect upon himself to the
internal structure of the work which has caused such an effect. However,
separation of effect and value that is evaluation based upon what a poem does
which immediately relegates the poem itself as an object of critical judgment
to a position of subordinate consideration. Such is the outcome and nature of affective
fallacy concern with effect to the subordinate or disregard of the effects
source and means of creation.
Intentional Fallacy:
The concept of ‘Intentional Fallacy’ begins with W.K. Wimsatt
and Monroe Beardsley’s essay, ‘The Intentional Fallacy’(1946). Literary
criticism at that time was heavily reliant on author’s biography approaches;
and Wimsatt and Beardsley put forward the radical idea that for literary works
arguments about interpretation are not settled by consulting the oracle that is
the author.
The Intentional Fallacy is a part of the arguments of
American New Criticism which holds that the proper object of literary study is
literary texts and how they work rather than the author lives or the social and
historical world to which literature refers. The Intention Fallacy names the
act of delimiting the object of literary study and separating it from biography
or sociology. The meaning resides in the literary work itself and not in
statements regarding his or her intention that the author might make. These
statements become separate texts that may become subject to a separate analysis.
God Bless you all
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