Response to Ede Questions

From Sheena's blog:
So do you believe that a text can be studied with out considering the author whom wrote the text?

My response:
Yes. I think it's fairly easy to take a piece of writing for what it is without considering who wrote it. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that any argument or point the author intends to express should be evident without the reader having to know anything about the author. It's very likely that having knowledge of the author will provide additional insight, or at least a different perspective on the writing. That said, it may even detract from the reader's respect for a work of writing to find out who it was that wrote it. Previous conceptions of the writer are, in my opinion, unnecessary and, more often than not, harmful to the writing because the reader's preconceived notions about the writer can falsely add to or detract from the writing as it stands and can stifle new, creative interpretations of the text.