On 'the writer's intention' (teachers)
As teachers of literature, we are tasked with asking candidates to interpret 'the writer's intention' - welcome to the world of mind reading! Or crystal ball gazing: This is difficult enough when the writer is still alive: I think it was Gillian Clarke who complained, with some spirit, to AQA when one of her poems was seriously misinterpreted on a mark scheme. How much more difficult for a writer who has been dead for more than 400 years, lived in a totally different time in every conceivable way and was working in what was then a new medium. Remember, the first purpose built theatre was constructed by James Burbage in 1576 only around 10 years before Shakespeare went to London. This is not about interpretation. There are as many Macbeth s or Hamlet s as actors who have played them or productions over the years. No, this is about why Shakespeare wrote the plays and what , if anything, his intention was in doing so. Stephen Greenblatt will tell you that the pla