This course interrogates the critical, theoretical and philosophical approaches to intentionality, authorship and expression as they have been investigated within art history, aesthetics and critical theory. From W.K. Wimsatt, through Roland Barthes and Stanley Cavell, to the academic journal nonsite, the intentionality of the artist has been a central concern within the history of art. While we will focus on texts that have been written in the twentieth-century, we will address a diversity of cultural and literary objects, which cross genres and periods. Students will write a research paper tailored to their own research interests.