Revisioning the Origin: Tracing Inventional Agency Through Genetic Inquiry

Abstract

The authors respond to the charge that reading for intentionality necessarily leads critics into a naive conception of agency. They argue for methods that hold authors, texts, and audiences in productive tension. Genetic criticism is offered as a perspective in which the author may be integrated within this tension. Using Di Gregorio and Gill's study of Darwin's marginalia and Campbell's examination of Darwin's notebooks, the authors apply genetic criticism to Darwin's writings to demonstrate that intentionalist readings offer scholars a useful critical resource.