Best Interpretation Essay

This essay looks to discuss my assumption that the best interpretation of a work of literature is the author’s intention for the work, as it is the basis for the work. This paper criticises this assumption as it does not allow for a sufficient understanding of literature and since there is no way to prove that there is a best interpretation. The paper offers a new assumption to alleviate these problems which states that a set of interpretations which have sufficient textual evidence are the best interpretations of any work of literature. The first problem with this assumption, is that is doesn’t allow for a sufficient understanding of literature. The assumption states that the best interpretation is that of the author’s intention. As such, it implies that to know what a piece of literature is about is to know this interpretation. Since it is the best interpretation, it should best explain what the work of literature is about. However, if there is a best interpretation we …show more content…
My new assumption about literature is that there every work of literature has a set of interpretations which are the best interpretations. Interpretations in this set are defined by the fact that they have a satisfactory amount of textual evidence. This evidence proves the interpretations validity as a proper interpretation of the work. There is no number of interpretations that can be in the set, all that matter is if they have enough evidence. There is however other interpretations to a work that does not fall within the set. Other possible interpretations that are not a part of this set are invalid, as they lack the necessary evidence and are thus too obscure to believe that they are really a possible interpretation of the work. Thus, the assumption holds that there is set of best interpretations, while interpretations outside of this set are