The Range of Interpretation

Download or read book The Range of Interpretation written by Wolfgang Iser and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The author formulates an anatomy of interpretation through which we can understand the many different forms that the act of interpretation takes. For Iser, there are several different genres of interpretation, all of which are acts of translation designed to transpose something into something else. Obvious examples involve canonical texts, and here Iser explores, for example, the Rabbinical exegesis of the Torah and Dr. Johnson's reading of Shakespeare. But what happens when the matter that one seeks to interpret consists not of a text but of a welter of fragments, as in the story of history, or is something hidden, as in the practice of psychoanalysis, or is as complex as a culture or a system? He concludes that if interpretation is a form of translation, then it is performative and will always depend on what it seeks to translate rather than on some absolute concept of truth." (Midwest).