HORIZONS OF UNITY: A DILTHEYAN TYPOLOGY OF INTERPRETIVE STANCES
HORIZONS OF UNITY: A DILTHEYAN TYPOLOGY OF INTERPRETIVE STANCES

Summary/Abstract: This article examines three interpretive approaches to a single panegyric, analyzing how historical horizons and internal textual structures interact within the Diltheyan framework of Verstehen. Panegyrics, ceremonial texts celebrating rulers’ military and diplomatic achievements, present a complex interplay of narrative domains, metaphor and episodic structure, making them ideal for studying the dynamics of unity (Ganzheit). The first approach, horizon-dominant, emphasizes externally imposed historical and cultural models, privileging diplomatic episodes and viewing unity as a product of contemporaneous literary tradition. The second, selectively immanent, combines historical orientation with microscopical analysis, but restricts attention to military episodes, producing partial reciprocity between part and whole. The third, fully reciprocal, engages both military and diplomatic episodes, attending to expressive interrelations while situating them within a flexible historical horizon, reconstructing emergent unity. By articulating these stances as a typology, the article demonstrates how Verstehen operates through varying balances of historical context and textual articulation, offering a model for nuanced literary and historiographic interpretation.

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