I figure the best place to start is with a mission statement, or at least a first swing at one. This theory as a whole springs from a paper I wrote in grad school, and will make use of some terminology, which follow the statement, initially introduced there.
Quantum Literary Formalism (which is not directly related to New Formalism) attempts to identify and define the formal operation of text and meaning within a descriptive as opposed to prescriptive paradigm (analogous to the difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammer), firmly grounded in a universal model of human understanding that is based upon the implications of the Uncertainty principle and Quantum Mechanics.
Central terms in Quantum Literary Formalism
- author-function/audience-function - the nodes within the performance/actualization of the text that represent the functions of author-in-fact/audience-in-fact
- author-in-fact/audience-in-fact - the actual, physical, grounded-in-time-and-space participants in the performance/actualization of the text
- intention/interpretation - that which was intended to be communicated/created by the author-in-fact / that which was interpreted/created by the audience-in-fact
- intentionality - all that might have been intended by the author-function, better understood as having the quality of potential intention / all that might have been interpreted/created by the author-function, better understood as having the quality of potential interpretation
These last two qualities are not absolute, but rather scalable, which will be explained further in a future post.
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