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Literature vocabulary · Criticism and Analysis

Intentional fallacy

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, intentional fallacy means: Treating an author's intended meaning as the decisive standard for interpreting a work.

In Turkish: niyet yanılgısı

How it is used

Use for an objection associated with New Criticism: an author's stated intention should not settle a work's meaning by itself.

Example sentences

  1. The tutor warned of the intentional fallacy when we treated the author's letter as the final answer.

    A private statement is being allowed to settle the poem's meaning.

  2. Her essay avoids the intentional fallacy by testing the claimed message against the ending.

    The interpretation checks what the work does rather than accepting a declared aim.

Common collocations

  • avoid the intentional fallacy
  • the concept of intentional fallacy
  • authorThe person who wrote a particular book, poem, play or other text.
  • literary criticismThe study, interpretation and evaluation of literary works, including discussion of their meaning, form, context and value.

More terms: Criticism and Analysis

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