Against Theory

First off, I found it very interesting that, at the end of this class, we read a piece basically telling us that everything we did in this semester was a waste of time. I do think he brings up some interesting points about the problems with looking for authorial intent, and I think it's important to try to focus on the text and what it says to you personally, not what it says according to what other people say the person saying it was trying to say. (I know that's one of the most confusing sentenses I've ever written, and I think that speaks to the problematic nature of authorial intent). I may not agree with all the things that Knapp and Michaels are trying to say in this piece, but I think it's important that someone reminds us all to not get too locked in or stuck in literary theory and it's rules of analysis. How we analyze things in our own mind are important, too.