Language, meaning and interpretation (translated critical articles)

Interpretation represents a daily activity. Any communication must involve interpretation. As for literature, interpretation is fundamental, as the reader encounters signs that need to be deciphered. The meaning must be possessed in order to communicate with what is read. However, modern criticism tried to leap beyond it, when it became clear that immersion in Interpretation generates personal experiences and revolves around individual selves that make themselves the center of the meaning of the literary text. Criticism fought this trend in the name of objectivity, transforming literature from "art" to "science," so that it was possible to talk about something "objective," about which one could converge instead of individual, subjective experiences relying on uncontrolled responses.Structuralism was the most important school that attempted to reveal the objective structure by which literature is founded, far from submitting to the frivolity of subjective responses, searching for the "author''s intent," and the historical and economic conditions for producing literature. It is concerned with researching the "conditions" of the era and searching for "sciences accompanying literature." Barthes declared "the death of the author," and the structuralists began to investigate the literary structure in an objective, empirical, and scientific manner. But what was surprising was that these structures they arrived at were not limited to literature. Rather, Barthes himself applied this major literary structure to the James Bond films.