Authorial Intent - Fanlore

Authorial Intent

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Authorial intentionality is a concept referring to an author's intent as it is encoded in his or her work. Many fans regard arguments such as "Author X has stated that character Y is heterosexual" to be immaterial; what counts to these fans is the work as it stands on its own.

For example, J.K. Rowling revealed in a question period after a book-reading that her character Dumbledore was conceived of by her as gay[1]. Some fans took this as justification of their queer reading of Dumbledore, while others regard Rowling's opinion on the matter as mere interesting trivia.

References

  1. "Rowling Says Dumbledore is Gay", Newsweek, 6 October, 2007, (Accessed 19 October, 2008)