Discussed the theme special issue of the 2023 Spring Quarterly of Narrative magazine, emphasizing the importance of "author guidance" in reading. Since the 20th century, when the focus of Western academia shifted from authors to texts and readers, and then to social and historical contexts, the emphasis on author directives has gradually disappeared. Since the 21st century, the Western academic community's one-sided emphasis on readers and social historical contexts has eased, and the influence of post structuralism has weakened. Scholars have begun to reflect on the neglect of the author's creative purpose and position, as well as the problem of viewing novels only as social and political documents and ignoring their artistic value. The thematic special issue of "Narrative" has emerged, exploring the relationship between the author, the work, and the reader, the definition of the author's instructions, and how to read according to the author's instructions. At the same time, it is pointed out that the author's instructions are not always reasonable, and readers sometimes need to break through their limitations or resist.

Author, work (text) and readers

Explored the complex relationship between the author, the work (text), and the reader. By quoting writer Smith's analogy, the work is compared to the author's house, while the readers are tenants. However, Smith also points out that many readers are just passing by in a hurry. The chapter further discusses the deconstruction of the author's role by theorists such as Derrida and Barthes, particularly Barthes' viewpoint in "The Death of the Author" that the author's voice and origin point in writing are destroyed, leading to the disappearance of the author's identity and allowing readers to freely interpret the work. After becoming the author, Smith began to agree with Nabokov's viewpoint on author guidance and realized that novel creation is an expression of the author's personal consciousness. The chapter also criticizes the theories of Barthes and Derrida, pointing out their misunderstanding and abuse of Saussure linguistics, leading to misinterpretation of the works. Invited editor Gershkovic attempted to reconcile the conflict between author guidance and reader agency through practice, but the author believes that this effort is futile. In the end, the author emphasizes that respecting the author and fully utilizing the reader's initiative to interpret the meaning given to the text by the author in a specific historical context is an ideal way of reading. The meaning of the work itself will not change with the context and readers. The important thing is to distinguish the research object, whether to explore the meaning expressed by the author's intention or to analyze the reader's interpretation changes.

How to understand 'author's instructions'?

In her paper "Guiding Metafiction Readers: Nabokov and Gombrovich," Kokinova explores the "author directives" that fictional metafiction authors provide to readers, aimed at guiding them on how to understand the work. She defines this type of meta novel as a 'directive meta novel' and believes that its functionality relies on the interaction between implicit readers and author instructions. Kokinova pointed out that the characteristics of "author directive" include requiring readers to execute, pointing out graphics and backgrounds, guiding wandering perspectives, cultivating specific textual contexts, etc., and distinguishing the variables of directive, such as appearance location, speaker and listener, pattern, etc. She compared the different features in the works of Nabokov and Gombrovich, but had a biased understanding of "author directives", confusing fictional metafiction authors with actual authors.

Comprehensive Reading "and Several Issues to Pay Attention to

Since the 19th century, the exploration of textual interpretation methods in Western academia has undergone a transformation from authors, works/texts to readers and socio historical contexts. To provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the work, the "holistic close reading" method was proposed, combining macro and micro reading to focus on the interaction between text components, the interaction between the work and the creative context, and the intertextual comparison between works. Although the New Criticism criticizes the "intention fallacy", it reveals the author's creative techniques and intentions through careful reading. The "overall close reading" corrected the new criticism's over correction of biographical criticism and excessive emphasis on writing skills. The "New Formalism" of the 21st century emphasizes the importance of close reading of texts, but needs to be expanded to the level of structural selection, focusing on the interaction between text and structural techniques. At the same time, attention should be paid to the intertextual examination between works to better grasp the author's creative purpose and stance. When using "holistic close reading", it is necessary to pay attention to the contrast and conflict between implicit processes and plot development, avoid misunderstandings caused by rigid theoretical frameworks, break the constraints of fixed author images and critical conclusions, and accurately derive "author instructions".

Why can't I sometimes follow the author's instructions?

Discussed two situations in literary interpretation where one sometimes cannot follow the author's instructions. The first situation is that the author's explicit instructions do not match the actual work, such as Kafka's comments on "The Judgment" misleading the understanding of his work, and through "overall close reading", the implicit process behind the work can be discovered. The second situation is that the author's hidden instructions contradict social justice, such as Chopin's "The Baby of Daisy Rei" which appears to be anti slavery but actually glorifies slavery, and requires resistance to such racist instructions. In addition, the chapter emphasizes the importance of inferring how the author hopes readers will read the work through "holistic close reading", and points out the need for continuous improvement and exploration of new modes of interpretation in the future.