• Reading Racism: The Assumption of Authorial Intentions in Stephen Crane's 'The Monster'

    Author(s):
    José Angel García Landa (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Group(s):
    American Literature, Narrative theory and Narratology
    Subject(s):
    Race, Ethnicity, American literature
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    interpretation, Stephen Crane, American fiction, Racism, Race/ethnicity, Narratology
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6FW04
    Abstract:
    This paper derives from an M.A. dissertation on Stephen Crane ("Reading 'The Monster'," Brown University, 1989). It examines the critical reception of Stephen Crane's story 'The Monster,' with a special focus on the issue of racial representation and on the way authorial intentions bearing on this issue are constructed by critics. The critical approach expands narratological analysis in the direction of the sociology of literature, in this case through reception aesthetics. Focusing on racial representations and attitudes, the paper upholds the relevance of authorial intention as a critical concept, understanding criticism as a specific discursive discipline or "language game," on the basis of the continual use critics make of this concept in order to make sense of the works they read. At the same time, the limits of such intentions are shown to be ideologically determined in the critical act. Interpretation emerges, therefore, as an interactive practice which is often blind to the discursive conventions that enable it.
    Notes:
    Written 1989.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
    Share this:

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf readingracism.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 304