1) Definition (CUET-ready)
The intentional fallacy is the critical error of interpreting or evaluating a literary work primarily by referring to the author’s intention—what the author “meant to say”—as the decisive standard of meaning.
The term is most strongly associated with New Criticism, especially the argument that:
- a poem (or literary text) should be treated as an autonomous verbal object, and
- meaning should be derived from the text itself, not from external authorial intentions.
2) Why it is called a “fallacy”
Calling it a fallacy means:
- relying on intention is considered a flawed method because intentions may be:
- unknowable,
- private or inaccessible,
- inconsistent,
- misreported,
- or irrelevant to the text’s actual language and effects.
A CUET-safe formulation:
- “What the author intended” is not the same as “what the text means.”
3) New Critical context (conceptual clarity)
New Criticism (mid-20th century Anglo-American criticism) promotes:
- close reading,
- attention to irony, paradox, tension,
- unity and organic form,
- avoidance of “external” evidence (biography, history) as the primary basis of interpretation.