Understanding the Meaning of Events and Texts -- Literary Hermeneutics

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Features: The purpose of philosophical hermeneutics is to reveal a historical truth through the genuine reading of texts. However, the concept of the zero point is precisely what Derrida detested; he believed that reading could not grasp truth. Regarding the question of whether we can talk about the understanding of "truth," whether truth can be obtained in understanding, Derrida argues that this itself is a metaphysical problem, one that requires deconstruction. Understanding and interpretation are shifts from sign to sign. It is impossible to obtain certain meaning or truth within the metaphysical form of presence. If meaning or truth exists at all, it is merely a temporary product of words or signifiers, something fluid and without stability. How could such a thing be certain meaning or truth? Gadamer and Derrida were both contemporary thinkers who placed great importance on games, but the purposes they achieved through them were quite different. Gadamer viewed games as the ontological existence of artworks, revealing artistic truth within their dynamic structures, while Derrida used games as a strategy to subvert texts, meaning, and truth. As for meaning or truth, he no longer possessed the "benevolent power intention" that Gadamer did. Gadamer sought to preserve the truthful in dialogue and understanding with tradition, whereas Derrida aimed to subvert all that was called truth in traditional metaphysics through deconstruction. Perhaps for Western cultural traditions, both Gadamer and Derrida hold immense significance. As David C. Hoy noted after comparing the two: "Both Derrida and Gadamer reject the possibility and utility of planning the whole of experience. Gadamer sought to avoid Hegelian experience completion (absolute self-affirmation) and the concept of the end of history, while Derrida believed that totalization is impossible, not only because of the impossibility of experience but also because of the finitude of games. Gadamer also derived his notion of openness from finitude. Both thinkers used their commitment to openness as a metaphysical antidote, particularly as an antidote to theological or eschatological thought—the practice of believing that order must be set within history and thought development."
Of course, philosophical hermeneutics has a unique understanding of the self-existence of literary works, thereby granting it a different autonomous stance in literary works compared to formal structuralism. Adhering to "literary works exist in themselves" does not mean that the existence of literary works is merely a form and structure of language. Rather, it means that adhering to the idea of literary works existing in themselves signifies that they express the truth of human aesthetic experience through their autonomy, just as literary language witnesses the existence of humanity through its richness and perfection, literary works also reveal truth through themselves.
Objectivist formalism and structuralism argue that artworks are autonomous, forms and structures realized through language, but they do not express truth. Unlike literary autonomy theories that aim to determine the linguistic form and structure of literary works, Gadamer's hermeneutics is not interested in the objectivity of literary works. He believes that our understanding of texts is always realized dialogically within language. Understanding the language, form, and structure of literary works is not to explore their form and technique, but to derive more from the understanding of the text. Philosophical hermeneutics also views literary works as autonomous, but it insists on the dimension of the truth of literary aesthetic experience. Therefore, literary art works are not merely autonomous in form and structure but are an extended world of meaning. Unlike formal structuralism, which views literary works as objective objects, philosophical hermeneutics understands the self-existence of literary works from the perspective of hermeneutics.
"Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the concept of the text only constitutes a central concept within the linguistic structure of the concept of interpretation. Indeed, the special mark of the text concept lies in the fact that it only reveals itself in relation to interpretation, and only from the perspective of interpretation is it presented as a real given to be understood."
Literary works do indeed obtain existence in their own way, but the autonomy of the literary work text is not an objective existence unrelated to the interpreter. It is an objective existence awaiting our recognition and validation, one related to our interpretation of it.
"From the hermeneutical standpoint—the standpoint of every reader—the text is merely a semi-finished product (Zwischenprodukt), a stage in the event of understanding, and must include a certain abstraction, that is, the separation and concretization within this event of understanding."
Clearly, literary works are fictional texts, imaginative works distinct from the real world. It is precisely this fictionality and imagination that provide an open structure for reading and reception.
The blank in fictional texts has a typical structure, its function being to provoke the reader's constructive activity. The implementation of this activity makes the intertextual content clear. The changing blanks produce sequences of conflicting images, which constrain each other in the process of reading. Discarded images themselves influence the formation of later images, even if the latter are intended to overcome the shortcomings of the former. In this regard, various images combine into a sequence, and it is through this sequence that the meaning of the text becomes active in the reader's imagination."
Iser's meaning blank arises from the uncertainty of the text, indicating that the supplementation of the blank within the entire system of the text creates mutual influence among text patterns. The blank in the text constantly interrupts the connectivity of reading imagination, revealing ever-increasing possibilities. As a fictional and imaginative work, the non-realization of literary texts produces blanks, which only provide the possibility of connection and constitute the "suspense" of reading. Blanks have aesthetic significance, playing a crucial role in the construction of reading images and producing strong effects in the process of image construction and transformation. The blank in the text transforms itself into a stimulus for imaginative activity, and in the communication between the text and the reader, it plays a self-regulating structural role. Iser calls this structure the "" (appealing structure), and it is precisely this appealing structure of literary works that becomes the "invitation" of philosophical hermeneutics, inviting people into reading and reception.
Therefore, regardless of how uncertain the meaning of the structure of literary works may be, it must rely on this "appealing structure." Whether it is a certain kind of blank and structure, it is first and foremost the structure that reading and understanding must depend on, serving as a foundational element for the creativity of reading and acceptance to begin and proceed.
Since literary reading and acceptance are the reading and acceptance of literature, they cannot be unaffected by the limitations of the text. However, literary works are also fictional and imaginative texts, and they necessarily require active participation in reading and acceptance.
Hermeneutical literary theory views the text as an autonomous "semi-finished product," though it has been questioned by radical hermeneutics, I believe that this hermeneutical concept of an autonomous "semi-finished product" has placed the openness and creativity of reading and acceptance in an ontological position, making them a necessary specification.
Thus, in my view, the exploration of the text concept by formalism, New Criticism, and structuralism, as well as Ricoeur's absorption of structuralist thought, is not without meaning. While there are indeed shortcomings in studying literary works as independent and self-sufficient objects, it cannot be denied that understanding and revealing the literary and intrinsic structure of literary works is also an important aspect that cannot be ignored in literary hermeneutics.
Therefore, when highlighting the role of reading in literary reception, the ontological turn of contemporary literary theory and criticism in emphasizing reading cannot discard the text as unnecessary. The boundary of the concept of an autonomous "semi-finished product" of the text is necessary.
The text concept of philosophical hermeneutics is concerned with what the text tells us. Its understanding of the text concept is derived from the hermeneutical concept. For philosophical hermeneutics, the concept of the text is an interpretive concept.
"From the hermeneutical standpoint—the standpoint of every reader—the text is merely a semi-finished product, a stage in the event of understanding, and must include a certain abstraction, that is, the separation and concretization within this event of understanding. However, this abstraction moves in the opposite direction of the abstraction carried out by linguists. Linguists do not wish to engage in discussions about the themes the text addresses; they explain how language functions as language, regardless of what the text says. They do not take what the text conveys as their theme but, rather, ask how it is possible to communicate anything through the punctuation and symbols of the text."
Thus, the concept of the text in the hermeneutical situation is not a pure object. The text exists within the event, serving as a partner in communication and dialogue.
First, positivist literary historiography adopts the methodology of natural sciences as the methodology of spiritual sciences. Positivist literary historians believe that literary history should have a method with universal validity like natural sciences, in order to establish a scientific view of literary history and objectively reconstruct the history of the emergence and development of literature. Positivist philosopher Auguste Comte believed that the sole purpose of science is to discover natural laws or the necessary, constant relationships within complex facts and phenomena. Only knowledge confirmed by positivist science can be applied to all aspects of human practice, including all fields of social and spiritual sciences.
This positivist philosophical thought is reflected in the positivist historiography of history, exemplified by Ranke's positivist historical view. Ranke believed that historians often overstep their task by commenting on the past for future benefits, thereby teaching the present. Such an approach actually exceeds the task of historians, whose task is to describe history truthfully.
In the field of spiritual sciences, while Dilthey recognized the vast differences between spiritual sciences and natural sciences and attempted to provide a methodology suitable for the characteristics of spiritual sciences, he did not escape the model of natural science methodology. Fundamentally, he actually reinforced the positivist methodology of spiritual sciences.
Positivist literary historiography was shaped under the influence of positivist philosophy, historiography, and the methodology of natural sciences.'s literary history and art history attempted to examine and analyze the objects of literary history and art history in the same way as natural sciences examine their objects. Literature and art, like plants, grow and develop in specific historical and environmental contexts. The study of literary history and art history is also like the study of natural sciences.
In his work The Philosophy of Art, he explicitly wrote: "Aesthetics itself is a practical botany, but the object is not plants, but human works. Therefore, aesthetics follows the current trend of advancing in both spiritual and natural sciences. If spiritual sciences adopt the principles, direction, and rigor of natural sciences, they will have equally solid foundations and progress."
His philosophy of art is based on an empirical study within the theoretical framework of the three elements of era, race, and environment. His famous History of English Literature is also constructed based on the empirical methods of natural sciences. He regarded these three elements as the original creative forces of literary historical development.
Bran?s creatively developed the theory of the three elements of literary history and Ranke's positivist historiography, treating "science" and "positivism" as the research methods of literary history.
"Like scientists studying the evolution of a physiological structure through the study of variations in different animal species, literary critics study the typical literary works of a period to some extent."
For positivist literary historians, literature is not primarily regarded as a spiritual object but as a natural science object. They believe that the work of literary historians is like that of botanists observing plants or zoologists dissecting frogs—through empirical methods and scientific analysis, one can thoroughly understand the object of literary history and establish a literary history as objective and effective as the history of natural sciences.