The Task Of The Interpreter: Text, Meaning, And Negotiation - Hardcover

Vandevelde, Pol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822942631 ISBN 13: 9780822942634

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005

Synopsis

The Task of the Interpreter offers a new approach to what it means to interpret a text, and reconciles the possibility of multiple interpretations with the need to consider the author’s intention. Vandevelde argues that interpretation is both an act and an event: It is an act in that interpreters, through the statements they make, implicitly commit themselves to justifying their positions, if prompted. It is an event in that interpreters are situated in a cultural and historical framework and come to a text with questions, concerns, and methods of which they are not fully conscious. These two aspects make interpretation a negotiation of meaning. The Task of the Interpreter provides an interdisciplinary investigation of textual interpretation including biblical hermeneutics (Gregory the Great’s Homilies on Ezekiel), translation (Homer’s The Odyssey), and literary fictions (Grass’s Dog Years and Sabato’s On Heroes and Tombs). Vandevelde’s phi

About this title

About the Author:

Pol Vandevelde is associate professor of philosophy at Marquette University. He is the author of Être et discours. La question du langage dans l’itinéraire de Heidegger (1927–1938).

Review:

"Informative, insightful"
--American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

“Challenging traditional approaches to interpretation on both sides of the Atlantic, Vandevelde argues trenchantly that the practice of interpretation, as both an event and an act, involves a process of justification that appeals to one or more distinct but interrelated levels of meaning: author's intention, textual meaning, and representative content. A masterful display of erudition and command of contemporary theories."
—Daniel Dahlstrom, Boston University

“Challenging traditional approaches to interpretation on both sides of the Atlantic, Vandevelde argues trenchantly that the practice of interpretation, as both an event and an act, involves a process of justification that appeals to one or more distinct but interrelated levels of meaning: author's intention, textual meaning, and representative content. A masterful display of erudition and command of contemporary theories."
—Daniel Dahlstrom, Boston University

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0822942631
• ISBN 13: 9780822942634
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256