The Limits of Literary Analysis: Feminist Literary Criticism and Authorial Intentionalism

Abstract

This article positions feminist literary criticism within the spectrum of authorial intentionalism and anti-authorial intentionalism, probing the necessity of referencing the author versus advocating for a detachment from authorial intent. It tends to probe whether feminist literary criticism favors referring to the author, or takes for granted the ability to reconstruct the author through his/her works. Based on textual readings of the literature on the topic, this article brings closer opposing views about the ability and inability of reconstructing the author by the analyst. Those opposing views consist of traditional literary criticism which calls for referencing the author on the one hand, and the concept of the ‘Death of the Author’ proposed by Roland Barthes which advocates an anti-authorial theoretical shift. This article arrived at the conclusion that feminist literary criticism aims for a delicate balance between acknowledging the author’s influence and embracing the ‘death of the author’ concept. Such a balance is crucial for a nuanced exploration of gender-related themes in literature.