Understanding the meaning of events and text: Literary Hermeneutics

Author: Jiansheng Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
Features: After, 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 capture truth. Regarding the question of whether we can talk about the understanding of "truth," whether truth can be obtained through 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? Both Gadamer and Derrida are contemporary thinkers who place great importance on play, but the purposes they achieve through it are quite different. Gadamer views play as the ontological existence of artistic works, revealing artistic truth within its dynamic structure, while Derrida uses play as a strategy to subvert texts, meaning, and truth. As for meaning or truth, he no longer holds the "benevolent power intention" that Gadamer does. Gadamer seeks to preserve the truthful aspects of tradition through dialogue and understanding, whereas Derrida aims to subvert all that is called truth in traditional metaphysics through deconstruction. Perhaps for Western cultural traditions, both Gadamer and Derrida hold immense significance. As David C. Hoy stated after comparing the two: "Both Derrida and Gadamer reject the possibility and utility of planning the overall experience. Gadamer seeks to avoid Hegelian experiential completion (absolute self-affirmation) and the concept of the end of history, while Derrida believes that totalization is impossible, not only because of the impossibility of experience but also because of the limited nature of play. Gadamer also derives his concept of openness from finitude. Both thinkers use the commitment to openness as a metaphysical antidote, particularly as an antidote to theological or eschatological thought, and as a remedy for the belief that order must be established in history and intellectual 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 that literary works exist 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 view artistic works as autonomous, as forms and structures realized through language, but they do not express truth. Unlike literary autonomy theories that aim to determine the linguistic forms and structures 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 forms and techniques, 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. "Whatever the case, it must be admitted 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 seen as a real given to be understood." Literary works do indeed exist 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, and it is related to our interpretation of it. "From the hermeneutical standpoint—the standpoint of every reader—the text is only a semi-finished product (Zwischenprodukt), a stage in the event of understanding, and must include a certain abstraction, that is, the separation and specification within this event of understanding." Clearly, literary works are fictional texts, imaginary works different from the real world, and it is precisely this fictionality and imagination that provide an open structure for reading and reception. "The blank of a fictional text has a typical structure, its function being to evoke the reader's constructive activity, an activity that makes the intertextual content clear. The changing blank produces a sequence 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." The meaning blank that Iser speaks of 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 the text patterns. The blank of the text constantly interrupts the connectivity of reading imagination, revealing ever-increasing possibilities. As a fictional imaginary work, the non-realization of the literary text produces blanks, which only provide the possibility of connection and constitute the "suspense" of reading. The blank has 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 of 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, which Iser calls the " structure" ( structure). It is precisely this literary work's " structure" that becomes the "invitation" of philosophical hermeneutics, inviting people into reading and reception. Therefore, no matter how uncertain the meaning of the structure of literary works may be, it must rely on this " structure" of literary works. Regardless of what kind of blank and structure it is, it is first and foremost the structure that reading and understanding must rely on, a fundamental basis 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 unrelated to the limitations of the text of the work. However, literary works are also fictional and imaginary texts, and they necessarily require active participation in reading and acceptance. The literary theory of hermeneutics views the text as an autonomous "semi-finished product," although it has been questioned by radical hermeneutics, I believe that this autonomous "semi-finished product" concept of the hermeneutical text has placed the openness and creativity of reading and acceptance in an ontological position, a necessary specification of reading and acceptance. Thus, in my view, the exploration of the text concept by formalism, New Criticism, and structuralism, as well as Ricoeur's absorption of structuralist ideas, 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 nature and internal structure of literary works is also an important aspect that cannot be ignored in literary hermeneutics. Therefore, when highlighting the important role of reading in literary reception, the ontological turn of contemporary literary theory and criticism toward reading still cannot discard the text as unnecessary. The boundary of the concept of an autonomous "semi-finished product" text is necessary. The text concept of philosophical hermeneutics is concerned with what the text tells us, and 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 only a semi-finished product, a stage in the event of understanding, and must include a certain abstraction, that is, the separation and specification within this event of understanding. However, this abstraction goes 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, they ask how it is possible to communicate anything through the punctuation and symbols of the text." Therefore, 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 history views the methodology of natural science as the methodology of spiritual science. Positivist literary historians believed that literary history should have a method with universal validity like natural science, 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 could be applied to all aspects of human practice, including the various fields of social and spiritual sciences. This positivist philosophical thought is reflected in the positivist view of history held by Leopold von Ranke. Ranke believed that historians often commented on the past for the benefit of the future, teaching the present, which actually went beyond the task of historians. The task of historians was to describe history as it was. While Dilthey recognized the vast differences between spiritual science and natural science and attempted to provide a method suitable for the characteristics of spiritual science, he did not break free from the model of natural science methodology. Fundamentally, he actually strengthened the positivist methodology of spiritual science. Positivist literary history was shaped under the influence of positivist philosophy, historiography, and the methodology of natural science. Hippolyte Taine's literary history and art history attempted to examine and analyze the objects of literary and art history as (the same as natural science examines its objects). Literature and art, like plants, grow and develop in specific historical and environmental contexts, and the study of literary and art history is also like the study of natural science. 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 science adopts the principles, direction, and rigor of natural science, it will have a similarly solid foundation 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 A History of English Literature is also constructed based on the empirical methods of natural science. He regarded these three elements as the original creative forces of literary historical development. Georg Brandes creatively developed the tripartite theory of literary history and the positivist historical spirit of Ranke, treating "science" and "positivism" as the research methods of literary history. "A literary critic studies the typical literary works of a period, which is somewhat like a scientist studying the evolution of a physiological structure by examining variations in different animal species." For positivist literary historians, literature was not primarily seen as a spiritual object but as a natural scientific object. They believed that the work of literary historians was like that of botanists observing plants or zoologists dissecting frogs, and that it was possible to thoroughly understand the object of literary history through empirical methods and scientific analysis, establishing a literary history as objective and effective as the history of natural science.