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The Conflict of Interpretations and the Limits of Pluralism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Paul B. Armstrong
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Abstract

The debate about validity in interpretation has pitted monism against pluralism. Some theorists insist that any literary work has a single, determinate meaning, and others argue that there are no limits to the readings a text allows. Neither view adequately describes the field of conflicting interpretations. Critics can and do have legitimate disagreements about literary works; yet we can also say that some readings are wrong, not simply different. The hermeneutic field is divided among conflicting systems of interpretation, each based on different presuppositions that decide what its procedures will disclose and what they will disguise. But several tests for validity–inclusiveness, efficacy, and intersubjectivity– act as constraints on reading and regulate claims to legitimacy. While these tests have limitations that prevent them from resolving all hermeneutic disagreements, literary criticism is nevertheless a rational, disciplined enterprise– though an inherently pluralistic one.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 98 , Issue 3 , May 1983 , pp. 341 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1983

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