Right. I completely agree with you on the issue of the fallacy of authorial intent in the context of interpreting the text. To say nothing of resistant reading. (I once wrote an essay on Romeo and Juliet as a caution against the glorification of romantic love that made my high school English teacher very upset). After all, that's where slash comes from (I use the term as a generic to include femslash/saffic).
I was thinking of the importance of the intent of an author in discussions such as this, which has become not so much about a reading of this particular text, as it is about white writers who try to write about non-white characters (and other unprivileged characters) and how and why they do it and what the issues are surrounding that.
And yes on the Tolkien. Now I love Tolkien's work with a deep and abiding passion, but there is no indication in the text anywhere that I've ever found that supports a view of Eowyn (or Galadriel, for that matter) being intended as a feminist role model. Which doesn't stop me from deciding that that in my own little alternate Tolkien-based universe, Eowyn became commander-in-chief of the forces that she and Faramir maintained in support of the throne of Gondor and ended up training Aragorn and Arwen's daughter (alas, a Mary Sue character), who became the head of the new and revitalised Rangers....
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-01-21 07:33 pm (UTC)I was thinking of the importance of the intent of an author in discussions such as this, which has become not so much about a reading of this particular text, as it is about white writers who try to write about non-white characters (and other unprivileged characters) and how and why they do it and what the issues are surrounding that.
And yes on the Tolkien. Now I love Tolkien's work with a deep and abiding passion, but there is no indication in the text anywhere that I've ever found that supports a view of Eowyn (or Galadriel, for that matter) being intended as a feminist role model. Which doesn't stop me from deciding that that in my own little alternate Tolkien-based universe, Eowyn became commander-in-chief of the forces that she and Faramir maintained in support of the throne of Gondor and ended up training Aragorn and Arwen's daughter (alas, a Mary Sue character), who became the head of the new and revitalised Rangers....
Ahem.