ENGL 497
Senior Seminar
Prof. G. Steinberg
Gadamer is, like Sartre, a phenomenologist. He’s interested in the process of reading -- what we experience as we read and how we make meaning out of our reading.
He first lays out the subjective process of reading, which involves things such as projecting, fore-meanings, prejudices. How do projections, fore-meanings, and prejudices function in the reading process, according to Gadamer? When we read, exactly what do we do?
Once Gadamer has explained what happens subjectively when an individual reads, he turns to the issue of how we can talk about objective meaning in reading. Gadamer isn’t willing to give up objective meaning entirely, although he isn’t willing to embrace it entirely either. As Gadamer points out, when we read (or hear) words, we assume “that we are moving in a dimension of meaning that is intelligible in itself.” We assume that meaning is clear and objective. Is it? If so, how? If not, why not?
These are some of the questions that Gadamer explores. So, how do we make meaning? When we read a very old text, for example, what makes it possible for us to approach that text with a chance of understanding it? How will we make sense of it? Can we ever be certain that we have understood it? What roles do tradition, effective-history, and historical and present horizons play in reading and understanding?
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