Establishing distinctions between hermeneutics and interpretation shows how the terms have become interconnected in present day use. Aristotle’s and Boethius’ uses of the term “interpretation” are compared to the reductive use of the term to indicate approval, normative meanings. Reading of a text is a participation in model-making, of reformulating a world view while involved in the art of reading — an act increasingly (with the reader’s growth in knowledge) formed into considerations of typologies and classifications. Understanding is not apart from interpretation; it is the goal of interpretation. Hermaneutical understanding is seen as understanding the meaning of a literary idea (text) and thus the larger model which corresponds to that idea; the reader is a critic who participates actively in the idea’s being and its history.
April 1983 · issue 17.2