Abstract： Leo Strauss’s esotericism,a special form of authorial intention criticism,has been regarded by some as supplying decisive support for this theory.Yet analysis reveals that,owing to its own philosophical stance,esotericism does not help in solving the two basic issues of authorial intention criticism,i.e.,the identification of meaning with author’s intention and the reader’s meta-perspective.Instead,it distorts some of the basic assumptions of authorial intention criticism or even pushes them to the point of absurdity.The explanation it provides for the so-called literary techniques found in esoteric writing also tends to lead to the deconstruction of author’s intention.The conclusion is that authorial intention criticism does not benefit from esotericism and is still faced with its theoretical problems as before.
2008, Vol. 39 
