Reading into the text. On transactional interpretation Cover Image

Wczytywanie (się) w tekst. O interpretacji transakcyjnej
Reading into the text. On transactional interpretation

Author(s): Michał Januszkiewicz
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Interpretation; Literary theory; Identity; Meaning; Gadamer

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt at formulating a standpoint on the problem of textual interpretation. The primary concern here is how to possible justify a fundamental character of interpretation and interpretative actions while, at the same time, preserving a relative autonomy of an interpreted text and respecting it (which, however, does not equal the fidelity to the text). Such a possibility can be traced on the grounds of the transactional interpretation, i.e. The experience of a strong bond between the literary text and (its) interpretation, the bond which is based on the mutual influence. On the one hand, literary text gains meaning owing to an interpretation, on the other, an interpreted text transforms an interpretation (or even an interpretator). In other words, an interpreted text turns out to be in a sense an interpretation of its own interpretation. According to the notion of transactional interpretation in the event and in the juxtaposition of literary text and interpretation they both are being transformed. A work of literature exposes its unstable identity, its “mobile” meaning. Interpretation, on the other hand, proves to be not a ready and objective “grasping” or appropriation of the text but rather that which is dynamic, according to Gadamer's idea that understanding is always a possibility to “understand differently.” The notion of transactional interpretation implies both the necessity of liberation from the subject-object dichotomy. Since such a dualistic split is removed on the grounds of mutual entanglement of interpretation and text as well as an opening of and a stress on the ethical issues.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 74-86
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish