Hermeneutic Principles of Understanding and Interpretation:

1. Literature is written for communication. Texts establish specific understandings of parts of the world and demand critical identification with what they propagate.
2. The prevalent medieval mode of reception is that of joint listening, though individual forms of understanding cannot be excluded.
3. Though usually not explicitly referred to, the necessary pre-condition for the possibility of a text to be understood is a self-evident portion of shared and common pre-understandings of an audience. These sets of norms and ideals of a by-gone society determine the understanding of medieval texts.
4. Interpretation is the reconstruction of under-standing which is no longer self-evident, i.e. the reconstruction of the authentic meaning of a text. As it is usually impossible to do this in detail, we have to be content with the reconstruction of the virtual meaning of a text.

A Method of Interpretation in Steps:

1. Sound textual understanding of the text (translation, glossary, textual notes, etc.).
2. Structure of the text (disposition of themes and larger text units, characters, plot, setting, etc.).
3. Leading hypothesis of the meaning of the text.
4. Testing and modification of the hypothesis with regard to significant text signs. (metre, rhyme, rhetorical figures, imagery, etc.)
5. Analysis and function of specific and significant text signs.
6. The text within the literary tradition
7. The text in relation to its audience and its historical embedding
8. The interpretation in relation to others (articles, monographs, etc.)

A Method of Interpretation in Questions:

1. What does the text mean word by word?
    
2. How is the text structured as a whole?
   
    
3. What is the text about? What is its central topic?
4. How is the text composed in detail?
   
   
    
5. Why is the text composed as it is?
    
6. How is the text interrelated to others?
7. What is the authentic or virtual meaning of the text?
8. How have other scholars and criticsread the text?

Remember, that understanding literature is a progress; and keep the following statement of the English historian Collingwood in mind:
"You have understood a text, when you have understood the question
to which it wants to be an answer."

Click here for a full text version of the principles and methods

Home > Navigation > Literature > Principles and Methods