Distributed Donne: A Response to the Problem of His Titles

Most of the titles traditionally associated with Donne's poems probably did not originate with the biographical Donne. When modern editors use these titles, they expand Donne's authorial "self" to include the literary judgments of the poet's first readers as well as their own literary judgments. Assimilating such non-authorial choices to the self of the author has two things to recommend it: it is consistent with the practices of the interactive literary subculture to which Donne chose to belong, and it offers an alternative for those who can no longer believe in intentionalism as the only principle of editorial choice