Interpretation - Hermeneutics

Interpretation starts with reading.

What is reading?

A human encounter

Something that passes through the paper to the

flesh and blood behind it.

An act of spiritual emergency

An act which is individual and incomplete

How do we read?

The historical method – WRONG

The meaning is determined exclusively by the

reader – WRONG

Reading is a unique human encounter - RIGHT

What do we read?

Documents or texts?

Documents are the physical embodiments of

texts, ie text given a specific form eg, a

manuscript, a letter, graffiti, an old book etc.

‘Text’ is an abstract idea. It is the set of words that

a document contains. It is independent of the

physical form of the document.

Text vs Document

Literary interpretation >> tends to disregard the physical form of the work

D F McKenzie’s ‘sociology of the text’ >> the physical artifact is crucial to interpretation

Only a ‘document’ (not a ‘text’) can answer questions like Who were the readers?’

When was it read?

Where was it published? Etc..

Interpretation must provide answers to such qns.

So, what is interpretation?

Interpretation is a social act

Interpretation is subject to frames of reference

Ie, every interpretation is influenced by its social,

political, institutional context and other factors

Every interpretation is influenced by previous

interpretations.m

What does a document mean?

There is no final/ultimate/complete meaning for a

doc.

Meanings change with each interpretation

No interpretation is complete or final

Documents leak with meanings

Docs may or may not contain ‘holes’. But they

definitely contain ‘wholes’.