Artistic interpretation

« that a musical passage leads back to the tonic key is to describe it non-interpretively, but to explain it simply as abridge passage is to interpret it, however obviously. 2 Meaning Most theorists of literary criticism agree that the interpretation of literature aims to disclose meanings in texts.They disagree about the ground of such meaning, whether it is simply the semantic conventions of the language,the intentions of authors, or the interpretive activities of readers or critics.

But it should be clear that interpretationdoes not always consist in disclosing meanings (unless we think of meaning in the broad sense of significance, andof significance as the value of a work or the place of its parts in its broader structure); and disclosing meaning isnot always interpreting.

Trivially, in musical works and paintings there is not always semantic content to berevealed.

In literature, if revelation of meaning were always interpretation, then every obvious paraphrase of everysection of text would count as literary interpretation.

But we need not interpret every simple sentence in a novel,and stating the ordinary dictionary meanings of the words in such sentences does not count as literaryinterpretation.

As noted above, we simply grasp the meanings of such sentences as we read them, much as we seetrees in a true-to-life landscape painting without having to interpret the painted shapes as trees.

One way ofavoiding this objection is to view interpreting as determining the meaning of a whole text or a large segment of itfrom the lexical meanings of its words and sentences.

But this view ignores the fact that phrases and even words intexts can be interpreted as well.

Stating the meaning of some obscure phrase or line in a poem constitutes aninterpretation when there is an implicit claim that the phrase is there to convey that meaning, and that its literaryvalue lies at least partially in its doing so.

Statements of meanings will rarely be complete interpretations of texts,since in literature the ways in which meanings are presented are relevant to the values of the works.

Hence formand not merely content must be explained in complete interpretations.

But certainly words often have value in atext largely because of the meanings they convey.

The idea that interpretation consists in determining the meaningof a whole text also implies that a simple paraphrase of a whole work is the paradigm interpretation of it.

Accordingto the explanatory account, it is most unlikely to be an interpretation at all.

Simply to paraphrase a work is notnormally to indicate the ways that its passages contribute to its overall artistic value.

Conveying certain meaningsis normally only part of that value, and paraphrase is needed to explain that part only when the text itself isambiguous or obscure.

Explanation of metaphorical, symbolic or ironic meaning is more often a part of genuineliterary interpretation. 3 Intention Much debate on this topic has centred on the relevance of artists' intentions.

According to one side of this debate,if there is to be a standard of correct interpretation, it must lie in uncovering the intentions of artists regarding themeanings and expressive properties in their works, since otherwise these matters remain indeterminate and open toconflicting construals.

According to this view, art is a form of communication, and the aim of the recipient, as in allcommunication, is the discovery of the speaker's intentions.

According to the other side, artists' intentions areinaccessible or irrelevant, since, if they are successfully realized, the results will be apparent in the worksthemselves; and if they are unsuccessful, they cannot determine how a work should be interpreted.

Viewinginterpretation as value-enhancing explanation provides a different perspective on this issue.

From this viewpointthere is certainly some value to be derived from seeing the world of an art work (and perhaps the real world as well)as its creator saw it and intended it to be seen.

Seeing through another's eyes, or imagining through another'screative genius, so as to alter one's own imaginative vision, is a major benefit to be derived from the appreciation ofart.

This benefit requires fidelity to artists' intentions, where these are recoverable.

On the other side, to acceptrecoverable intentions as constraints on correct interpretations, to insist that there is always only one correctinterpretation of any work of art and that this is the one intended by its artist, may be to rob contemporaryaudiences of valuable experiences they might have of the work.

A Freudian reading of Hamlet may afford illuminating insights into its characters, whether or not such an interpretation was or could have been intended byShakespeare.

It is commonplace in the domain of music for conductors and performers not to be limited toconveying expressive properties specifically intended by composers.

(It might be objected here that theperformative interpretations of musicians do not fit the definition of interpretation given above, since they are notexplanations.

But they are informed by critical interpretations that are not constrained by composers' explicitintentions.) The intentionalist can also be accused of confusing speakers' (artists') meanings, or what speakersintend to say, with utterance (text) meanings, or what their language conveys according to its semanticconventions.

If an utterance or text is unclear or ambiguous, then a speaker's intentions cannot in themselves makeit less so.

In ordinary communicative contexts, we do not use speakers' intentions to clarify the meanings of theirutterances; instead, we use the semantic conventions governing their utterances as guides to recovering theirlinguistic intentions.

Thus, the best argument for intentionalism - the claim that interpretation aims only to discloseartists' intentions - must be that art is a form of communication and, as such, shares this aim.

This is partiallycorrect in that, as indicated above, it points to one major value in the experience of art.

But there are others.. »