ABSTRACT
When I was teaching literature at MIT, a colleague in the philosophy department named Irving Singer used to talk about the importance of what he called “bestowal” in considering a work of art. He was interested in what we bring to an artistic experience as well as in what the artist brings to us. The form, the theme, the technique, the context of a piece are, of course, all crucial elements, but what we bestow upon it was, to Singer, a major factor as well.
