Reader as Interpreter of Form

Hey Everyone!

I posted my seminar paper on blackboard. After reading the works for this week, I was left with several questions, which I tried to come to terms with in my paper, but I'm still left wondering some things. Does our interpretation of Frankenstein change when we know it was written by a woman? Can we avoid the baggage that we come in with knowing when, in what country, and by whom a work is written? Sometimes, it seems impossible to avoid these associations, so in what way might they change our reading of a work? In some ways, I agree with the formalists that if some part of the historical background and historical context is meant to enhace the meaning of a work then it will make it's way into the work. But not every poem one reads says the year it was written, so does this affect our ability to make sense of certain works? Or is this not important at all?