Why is the biography of the poet or author irrelevant to the interpretation of his or her work?
Because I cannot recognize what I do not already know. If I were supposed to know the author’s biography already, prior to reading the work, in order to recognize what must be recognized so as to grasp and enjoy the game of recognition that the work has to offer, then the author’s biography would have to have already been a matter of common knowledge. What people mean by “biography” is not mere common knowledge that readers of the work in its own time would have already had available. Rather, “biography” means a biographical study, an inquiry that reveals, precisely, things that people would not already have known. It makes no sense to think of a work of art as something that works — that gives pleasure, or that gives the full extent of its intended pleasure — only to people who know more than anybody would be expected to know without studying the story of the life of the artwork’s creator. Think of it this way. How does the biography of an author get written, and why? Because the auth
