I think Phil means the debate over authorial intentionality (and related topics):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorial_intentionality
Though he might have meant other aspects of that debate.
Other articles that might help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_criticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Criticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader-response_criticism
I could go on...
Please don't! I try and avoid reading about lit crit (I completely avoid reading actual lit crit), far too many long words used purely to sound clever.