Seven Types of Ambiguity

…But it was his critical approach that had a greater impact on the literary world than his poetry. In Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), written while he was a student at Cambridge, he argued that when two or more meanings are read into a word or expression in a literary work, one should not choose one of them as correct and discard the others, but rather that the layered meanings are the essence of the work. This position that finds positive value in the layering of meanings and "ambiguity" saved literary works from a flat reading, and allowed for a delicate and precise perspective on the texture of language and ornamentation, and also placed priority on the work itself and the reader's way of reading it rather than the author's intention. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "Seven Types of Ambiguity" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…しかし，文学界に詩よりも大きな影響を与えたのは彼の批評的方法だろう。　ケンブリッジ在学中に書かれた《曖昧（あいまい）の七つの型》(1930)では，文学作品中にある一つの単語，表現のなかに二つ以上の意味を読みとった場合，それをいずれか一方を正しいものとして他を切り捨ててしまわず，その重層的な意味こそ作品の本質であると主張した。こうした意味の重層性，〈曖昧さ〉に積極的な価値を見いだす立場は，文学作品を平板な読み方から救い，言語のきめや文飾に繊細，精緻な視点をめぐらせることになり，また，作者の意図よりも，作品そのもの，読者の読み方に優位をおくことになった。…

※「《曖昧の七つの型》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報