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Amdal - The-hermeneutic-arc-Ricouers-theory-of-interpretation PDF
Understanding:
The Hermeneutic Arc
Paul Ricœur’s Theory of Interpretation
Geir Amdal
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO
Department of Philosophy
Acknowledgements
Geir Amdal
May, 2001
Contents
Acknowledgements iii
Contents v
1 Introduction 1
The Hermeneutic Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Openness of Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Expanding the Hermeneutic Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A Philosophy of Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Methodology of Reciprocal Reinforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Interpreting Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Strategic Deliberations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6 Conclusion 77
Restructuring the Hermeneutic Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Ramifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Challenge of Ricœur’s Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Bibliography 88
Chapter 1
Introduction
dichotomy of erklären and verstehen, while at the same time clearing ground
tanciation and belonging. He envisions a model of the text freed with respects
to its author, yet still able to reach beyond pure textuality and retain its relation
to a world.
paradigms for text and spoken discourse. The former differs from the latter in
being, through the act of inscription, detached from the original circumstances
which produced it. The intentions of the author are distant, the addressee is
general rather than specific and ostensive references are rendered void.
Openness of Interpretation
A key idea in Ricœur’s view is that once the discourse has become an artefact,
and is released from the subjective intentions of the author, multiple acceptable
2 Introduction
anisms for divination. Hypothesis formation must not only propose senses for
terms and readings for texts, but also assign importance to parts and invoke
tions may be reached along many paths. Following Hirsch (cf. Hirsch, 1967),
which relies on logical proof. As Hirsch notes, this model may lead into a di-
of falsifiability into his methods for validation, which he applies to the internal
pretations.
ing, Ricœur distinguishes two stances regarding the referential function of the
proach incrementally constructs the world that lies behind the text but must
world behind the text and focusing on a behavioral inventory of the intercon-
The structural interpretation brings out both a surface and a depth inter-
pretation. The depth semantics is not determined by what what the author
and this aboutness of the text, that is, the kind of world opened up by the depth
semantics of the text. Instead of imposing any fixed interpretation, the depth
and focusing on the formal algebra of the genres reflected in the text at vari-
ous levels, the structural method gives rise to objectivity while capturing the
A Philosophy of Integration
he is always open to new insights. When his ideas are challenged, he does
not attempt to defend them from the assault, so as to keep them intact. On the
contrary, he usually does his utmost to assimilate the objection in his continued
1
Bootstrapping is a concept more commonly used in Computer Science, where it refers to
a self-initiating process. In this context, however, what is intended is the process of initiating
hermeneutic movement between interpreter and text. For there to be grounds for an interplay
between a literary work and its readers, it must already be constituted as work. Yet this
constitution is something the text cannot bring about on its own, but is itself necessarily a
product of an act of interpretation. The hermeneutic movement must in other words bring
itself into being, lifting itself by its own bootstraps.
4 Introduction
philosophy.
Habermas debate. This mediating position has earned him the title of ’bridge-
builder’ between traditions, yet I shall attempt to demonstrate that such a label
can give the false impression that Ricœur tries to close a gap across a method-
to the degree they deserve it. In other words, the distance is not bridged, but
abolished, as the models are integrated and assimilated, often through a meth-
odological grafting of the one onto the other, or through the subordination of
the one under the other in a dynamic tension, where both models contribute
other philosophies, but rather through unifying them as far as possible, and
the possibility of always locating meaning in the expressions of man leads him
thoroughly and having adopted and integrated into his own analysis those
Whether or not Ricœur actively seeks terms especially to obtain the effects
the fact that his philosophy has a remarkable tendency of constantly grow-
logy’ has the somewhat problematic consequence that the different parts of his
Interpreting Interpretation
enough light is shed on the constituent elements and models that the patterns
sphere of langue, the semantic sphere of discourse, and the hermeneutic sphere
ological hermeneutics.
Strategic Deliberations
On the basis of a model of the text, a brief overview of the dialectic of the
the structure of the theory rather than its thematic content in chapter 6, as
promised.
Chapter 2
The Model of the Text
introduced in the works of de Saussure, between langue and parole. The former
is the system of signs, rules and virtual meanings that constitutes language, the
implies the choice for the langue. All questions concerning the meaning of
speech as it is bound to a specific subject and situation are bracketed. The focus
of language.
of the system at a given moment. ’Systems are more intelligible than changes’
(Ricœur, 1976, p. 6). Within the system the relationships between the distinct
8 The Model of the Text
terms or signs are brought to light. Every sign only has a meaning in so far
that ’summarizes and commands all the others’ (Ricœur, 1974a, pp. 250-1)—
the structural model isolates the ’langue’ as a closed universe of signs. Language
constitutes for Ricœur both the strength of the structural approach and its
plete object brings out the aspect of organization without which there would
description remains abstract. With the ’parole’ all those aspects which accord-
ics are purified and reduced to a science of language,” explains Ricœur “the
more it expels from its field everything concerning the relationship of language
“forgetting of structures which are prior to language itself”. In the first place
it leaves aside the question of man who expresses himself through language.
system of signs and codes. Furthermore, limitation to the ’clôture des signes’
implies that being is forgotten. The fact that language refers to any non-
(cf. Ricœur, 1974a, pp. 27-61, especially p. 51). Such philosophies—as they
gives meaning to his world, and transfers a ’message’. It is, rather, suggested
of the world and of himself. Thus the individual capacity for thinking and
stand man is to understand the structures that constitute his language, the
networks of myths and texts that constitute his culture, the social structures
within which the structural model retains its value as a scientific instrument
not the relations between man and language, language and the world, of more
gives meaning to his world? That is why Ricœur opposes a second approach to
the structural one. The model of the immanence of the langue is complemented
designated (or more precisely, what is referred to)”, and the “transcendence
of the speaking subjects”. In this way, he enters the field of what may be called
language expresses the meaning of the world and of being; the subject is the
bearer of this meaning. Man is the one who, by means of language, brings
must,” claims Ricœur, “be structural—at least in its primary stages.” “It is
De Saussure’s idea was that only the ’langue’ is a proper object for science:
Ricœur exchanges this distinction for another, that of semiology and semantics
(cf. Ricœur, 1974a, p. 93), (Ricœur, 1994, pp. 66-76) and (Ricœur, 1976, pp. 6-8).
what happens when the words come together in a sentence and thus generate
a meaning. “The first articulates the sign at the level of potential systems
of signs and rules only makes sense in view of their actual functioning in
spoken language. “Outside the semantic function in which they are actualized,
Ricœur shows how the potentiality of the system is actualized so that language
emerges on a new level, that of a genuine and unique meaning (Ricœur, 1974a,
pp. 86-88), (Ricœur, 1994, pp. 70-75) and (Ricœur, 1976, pp. 9-12).
Discourse 11
Discourse
arise and vanish, but the system remains. However, Ricœur advocates “the
potential and a-temporal; its elements only become actual through discourse.
the system is a finite and fixed set of phonetic and lexical signs, discourse is
finite means” (von Humboldt, cited in Ricœur, 1974b, p. 97), (Ricœur, 1994, p.
63). Whereas the system is a matter of constraint and rules, discourse is choice,
freedom.
The acts, events and choices of discourse imply another, decisive, trait: dis-
course has a subject (cf. Ricœur, 1974a, p. 88). In the anonymous system the
objects Ricœur, while “discourse refers back from itself to its own speaker
ates language. I make it ’my’ language and I anchor discourse in the here and
now of my situation. (cf. Ricœur, 1974a, pp. 254-6), (Ricœur, 1976, p. 13) and
in van Leeuwen, 1981). Words turn from the pseudoworld of the system to the
actual world. This is what Ricœur calls ’reference’ in its strict sense: the claim
answer, etc.) is expected. Thus dialogue is the basic form of discourse. “Even
process of creation of meaning. Its triple reference makes it open towards the
thresholds (Ricœur, 1974a, p. 84). In the first place, the words arise from their
phantomatic state of being dead signs and attain a living meaning: discourse
Herein lies precisely the mystery of language; discourse does not only have
of representing reality with the help of words. This concept of discourse as the
and its interpretation, and a theory of the word: its polysemic, metaphorical
and symbolic qualities. Finally, also the core issue to this inquiry—the specific
The sentence is, as has been said, the characteristic unit of discourse. “It
is the sentence which has a speaking subject; it is the sentence which has a
reference; it is the sentence which is addressed to the other.” Inquiry thus goes
toward the level of unities larger than the sentence, texts, and to that of unities
smaller than the sentence, words. When reading the following paragraphs,
dealing with the theories of text and word, it should be kept in mind that
interpretation always has to do with the interplay of these distinct levels. The
is used, as this sentence has to be understood in the context of the text. The
text cannot be explained except by envisaging the interplay of its parts and the
the problems posed by the text. What is a text? What happens when discourse
reading a text? How does interpretation proceed and how are the moments
related?
author, the “life” behind the text. For Ricœur, to understand is to grasp
the world opened up in front of the text. In this respect his hermeneutic is
by what is at issue in the text itself (its message), and with Gadamer, who
hearing another person speak, what we try to understand is not the speech-
event but the meaning—the ’issue’ of his speech. We want to grasp what is
said and what it refers to (Gadamer’s ‘die Sache’). The axiom of Ricœur’s
(Ricœur, 1975, p. 67). Is it not the intention of writing that the meaning should
survive the vanishing event of discourse? What is inscribed is not the event as
event, but what is said. That the event is surpassed by a meaning thus applies
all the more to the text. From the moment of its inscription it starts, so to speak,
a career of its own. It becomes autonomous, leaving behind the moment of its
creation.
Semantic Autonomy
living speech, Ricœur presents the text as a “direct inscription” of what could
have been said orally. Writing is as original as the spoken word. In this way
Ricœur breaks away from a long tradition in which the written word is seen
13), which speaks of “die reine Sprachlautigkeit” that suffers “eine gewisse
back to Plato and Rousseau (cf. Ricœur, 1976, pp. 38-40). (It is also one
derived.) Writing here becomes a merely physical vehicle and even a deceiving
this Ricœur states that writing is not reproduction, and even less reduction, but
writing began with the graphic transcription of the signs of speech” (Ricœur,
With the help of his concept of textual autonomy, Ricœur wants to illu-
minate the specific claim of truth of the text. The autonomous character of the
Language refers to a speaker, a hearer, and the world. What happens to these
references in writing?
tioned about his intentions. In written language these direct indications of the
the said of the text and the psychology of its author. The reader has to do with
what the text expresses and this may transcend the author’s view to a consider-
able degree. Therefore, the author is not the best interpreter of his own works,
neither does the queary about original intentions offer the right cue for inter-
pretation. “To read a book is to consider its author as already dead” (Ricœur,
1995e, p. 137). In fact, as Beerling remarks, most texts would not lose their
cidental”: it is essential that someone wrote this text; it is accidental who did so
turalist one which denies authorship stating that texts are interwoven in and
tains that the text is a discourse produced by an author. But to envisage its
As the text is emancipated from its author, so it is liberated from the re-
whomever knows how to read” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 31). Texts offer their meaning
is determined not so much by the response of the first readers, as by the de-
gree to which they are capable of evoking new interpretations. Important texts
to erase this history (in an effort to transport oneself into the position of its
first readers), but to promote it. (Gadamer states the first two elements of the
autonomy of the text in the same way (Gadamer, 1990, pp. 369-70).)
readers, but a new event: a confrontation with what the text says. About what,
The question of reference, in the strict sense, leads to the heart of Ricœur’s
theory. All discourse refers to something. But again written discourse differs
widely from oral discourse. The latter is performed within a situation common
to the members of the dialogue. Its references are toward a reality that is
present to speaker and hearer and they rely on the possibility of pointing to
this commonly perceived reality. The text does not refer to a situation that is
present here and now to both reader and writer (Ricœur, 1995e, pp. 138-9).2
In this regard the text is ’worldless’. But precisely this abolition of a direct
reference to the given world frees the text to project a world of its own. As
the meaning of the text is beyond the author’s intention and beyond what the
reader of any specific time grasps, so its reference is beyond what the ordinary
world offers. The text brings about a “distantiation of the real from itself”
seeek for intentions behind the text but explain the sort of being-in-the-world
to writing. It is thanks to writing that “man and only man has a world
and not just a situation” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 36). In Ricœur’s concept speech
in Fallible Man was called man’s “perspectivity”. That discourse also has the
more existential function of exploring the truth of being and the possibilities
aside from the “perspectivities” of this performer, this audience, and from the
a text . By reading texts man escapes from his situatedness in the here and
now. The Umwelt of what is available and visible expands into a Welt formed
“the ensemble of references” opened by all texts “that I have read, understood
and loved” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 37). To have a world is to live within a horizon
to major themes of phenomenology. The idea of the world as the horizon of life
being-in-the-world comes close to Heidegger. Did not Sein und Zeit reveal that
the most fundamental function of Verstehen, far from being the comprehension
interpretation (Heidegger, 1993, §31).3 When Ricœur states that the world of
the text is the offer made by the text to the reader of new possibilities of being-
On the other hand, it is crucial for Ricœur that he relates this idea of the
’world’ to the concept of the text. This enables him to introduce a critical,
that always precedes? How can it criticize, modify or renew it? “[H]ow can
3
Ricœur points to the parallels with Husserl and Heidegger in The Hermeneutical Function of
Distanciation, p. 140 (see also Ricœur, 1976, p. 37).
4
“[W]ith Heidegger [...] any return from ontology to the eistemological question about the
status of the human sciences is impossible”. Existence and Hermeneutics (in Ricœur, 1974a)
contains Ricœur’s fundamental criticism of the “short route” along which Heidegger related
understanding and being (Ricœur, 1974a, pp. 6-8).
Method of Interpretation 19
seems to be missing. Is the ’world’ which the text opens only centered on
’my’ subjectivity, ’my’ personal authenticity? Does not the text interrupt my
prejudiced reading and open up broader dimensions than these personal ones?
we try to comprehend are part of these same traditions. In fact, the tradition
view, nothing scandalous about this. On the contrary, this belonging makes it
possible to overcome the alienating gap between us and the text. Man can start
his search for what lies behind the text from a certain expectation concerning
the answer which the text may give to him. Again Ricœur questions whether
reach a distance from the texts of our tradition so that it is more probable that
our prejudices may be corrected, our questions exceeded? (Ricœur, 1995d, pp.
60ff)
The interplay of both can be demonstrated most clearly on the autonomous text.
Method of Interpretation
The ’autonomy’ of the text and its ’world’ are key concepts in Ricœur’s
theory. Autonomy implies that a text should not be understood from anything
20 The Model of the Text
sociologically (e.g. the original context of reception), but from what itself
expresses. The idea that texts can not be understood from what their words
say but must be interpreted from something behind them is, as Japp says, based
that can be explained. On the other hand, its autonomy gives the text a
text as an object that can be explained and which ’opens’ it towards a specific
world that calls for hermeneutic understanding (cf. Ricœur, 1975, p. 73).
one of the functions which Heidegger in Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes attrib-
utes to a work of art: ’das Verschliessen’ on the one hand and ’das Welt-Eröffnen’,
’die Aufstellung einer Welt’ on the other (cf. Heidegger, 1994)(Holzwege). How-
ever, Heidegger’s analysis does not use the idea of ’das Dinghafte’, ’das Insich-
Structuralist Analysis
The suppression of the direct relation of the text to an author, a world, a time
functions, in the same way in which the langue is analysed as a ’closed universe
of signs’. Indeed, the text is discourse and with regard to the langue it has
text is the type of discourse which can be analysed in a similar way as the
Structuralist Analysis 21
codes. “The unities of higher order than the sentence, are organized in a
way similar to that of the small unities of language, that is, the unities of an
order lower than the sentence, those precisely which belong to the domain of
linguistics” (Ricœur, 1995e, pp. 140,142) (Ricœur, 1975, p. 52) (Ricœur, 1976,
pp. 82-3).
It is beyond the scope of the current chapter to present in any detail the
does not attempt to develop any new model. What he is attempting is to prove
that texts can be explained with the help of models which are “borrowed from
effort which is alien to the specific object of these sciences. Explanation and
understanding can dispute with each other “on the same ground” (Ricœur,
it superfluous to give further proof of the fact that structural analysis can be
extended to the level of texts. Evidence for this lies, he claims, especially in
the units which constitute the myth, ordering these ’paquets’ in categories
and relations is thus produced which brings to light the underlying codes
of the myth and their inner logic. Propp analysed the structure of folk-tales
violation etc.) and 7 elementary roles (villain, helper, hero etc.). The plot of
roles. Barthès developed this model further by classifying the units of the
text.
This objectivity is vital if one seeks to make the message of the text reachable
When Ricœur speaks of the text as a work (Ricœur, 1995a, p. 136-40), this
implies, on the one hand, that it can be taken as a finite object; it is ’dinghaft’
and can be explained with the help of objective procedures. On the other hand,
it is precisely in this way that a process of meaning that is at work in the text may
come to light. The text ’works’, it produces certain meanings. Its codes are
the vehicles of a certain message.5 To say this is to suggest that the structural
reading which holds to the purely immanent character of the text should be
5
Ricœur emphasizes this point in discussions on Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism. When Lévi-
Strauss holds that myths are logical models which suggest certain solutions for the contradic-
tions of life, this implies that they have a meaningful intention. They give conjectures concerning
elementary enigmas. Structural analysis postpones the question of meaning by focusing on the
inner logic of myth, but it cannot eliminate it. Such an elimination would be the reduction of the
theory of myth “to a necrology of the meaningless discourses of mankind” (Ricœur, 1995e, p.
147).
6
Barthès writes: “A narrative does not show anything, it does not imitate (. . . ) what happens
in narratives is from the referential standpoint actually NOTHING. What happens is language
alone, the adventure of language” (cited in Ricœur, 1975, p. 51). Cf. (Ricœur, 1976, p. 30),
where Ricœur contrarily comments: “Discourse cannot fail to be about something. (. . . ) I am
denying the ideology of absolute texts.”
Structuralist Analysis 23
opposed terms, Ricœur returns to his presupposition: the text is discourse. Its
That is to say, it is impossible to cancel out the fact that the text is made by
message calls for understanding by the one who, here and now, reads the text.
The ultimate aim of hermeneutics remains the understanding of what the text
means to me. One has “to ’make one’s own’ what was previsously foreign”
a new way. What I “make my own” is not something that lies behind the
text, but the world toward which it opens up. In the act of understanding the
horizon of the text and the horizon of my self-understanding merge into each
taking hold of the text by the reader. The text and its project of a world
moment of dispossession from the egoistic and narcissistic ego” (Ricœur, 1976,
pp. 94). The text breaks through the categories of man’s self-understanding
and his understanding of the world. In this way the world of the reader and
contained within a hermeneutic circle. One pillar of this arc is the discourse
of the text, its act of projecting a world; this act of the text can be elucidated
by explanation. The other pillar is that of the act of understanding, the aim of
interpretation proper.
24 The Model of the Text
immanence and hope, of matters of fact and new possibilities, of good and
evil, and texts may offer him ever new perspectives of possible ways of being-
in-the-world.
Attempting to account for the ethical function of literature and literary cri-
person” (Eaglestone, 1997, p. 3). The epi-reader “moves swiftly from print
and language to speech and voice and the present person” (ibid.). Under this
transposes the written words on the page into a somehow corresponding situ-
and events is seen, and the function of literature is reduced to that of a view-
and reading over “a nostalgia for the human” and seeks to engage with texts
“in their virtuality” (Eaglestone, 1997, p. 4). The graphi-reader reads the words
and refuses to pass beyond, or create a world behind, them. All deconstructive
place Derrida, de Man, Barthes and Mallarmé among those who experience
Even though Donoghue does not develop the distinction on the basis of
any strict definitions, but rather on the basis of heuristic analyses, is seems
A Room For Objectivity? 25
quite possible, in fact, that Ricœur’s theory intergrates both models of reading,
A set of questions arise. In the first place: is this true of all kinds of texts or is
Ricœur aiming at a specific type of texts? Certainly the latter is the case. His
thesis that the text is a disclosure of a world is not as equally valid for various
kinds of trivial texts7 as it is for what may be called the ’great texts’ of the past.
A natural science text does not open up new dimensions of the world in the
same way as poetic discourse does either. It is in this last type of discourse that
Ricœur’s interest lies, taking ’poetic’ in a broad sense, as applying to all those
types of literary discourse which in their referential function differ from the
discourse.
Ricœur sharpens this image further. The same processes are in effect in
extent does this guarantee a space for objective criteria and methods in textual
A final question: it has been said above that the theory of the text only
with the problem of the text that more general questions about the function
of language can be brought to light. What is it that gives discourse this capacity
7
Though these can be argued as opening up visions of the world as well, albeit rather
superficial, conventional ones.
26 The Model of the Text
not of texts but of the words and their capacity of evoking different meanings
and creating new meaning. In going into Ricœur’s theory of the metaphorical
function of language we will have to go back to a point that was reached before
we entered into the theory of the text, namely where the signs of the language
ground for the theory of the text and the theory of metaphor in the dynamics
theory of metaphor.
text is realized in a way parallel to the function of the metaphor. Thus to be able
between text and metaphor as a starting point. At this point, however, the
28 The Tensional Conception of Metaphor
ary works in Interpretation Theory (Ricœur, 1976, p. 45): “If we can incorporate
“then we will be able to give the theory of verbal signification its greatest pos-
sible extension.” In The Symbolism of Evil (Ricœur, 1967) and Freud and Philo-
object he found both as broad and as precise as possible. He defines the sym-
bol in turn through its semantic structure of having a double meaning. In later
path, choosing instead a less direct route that takes linguistics into account. If
theory of the symbol, however, the theory of the symbol will in return allow
symbols, whose complex structures shed light on the richness and creativity
which a novel metaphor is produced; and he claims that this difficulty can
be overcome only if one accepts the view that the primary metaphorical unit
is not the word but the sentence. Metaphor presupposes the establishment
Ricœur’s Theories of Metaphor 29
reduced to the latter, for metaphor is the very process by which the polysemy
its power to redescribe reality. In the last analysis, the function of metaphor
is to shatter and increase our sense of reality by shattering and increasing our
language.
Ricœur wishes to distance his own theory from the substitution theory
not make room for any dynamic of metaphor. Through an indifferent use of
dead metaphors in their expositions, they fail at the outset of their attempts to
sidered, such as man is a wolf, a fox, a lion (...) With these ex-
amples, we elude the major difficulty, that of identifying a meaning
which is new.
— (Ricœur, 1995c, pp. 171-2)
does not come into its right qua metaphor until the interpreter from this incon-
point being that the attribute of the metaphor which makes it unique is that
it is new, emergent, and obtained from nowhere. At least not from language
itself.
in and through the context constituting it as actual and unique. The semantic
event takes place in the crossing between the semantic fields the interpreter
has drawn upon in his structural efforts. Through this construction, being the
means through which the words together make sense, the metaphorical twist
becomes an event and at the same time a meaning—a meaningful event and
struct the meaning of a text in a way similar to the one that grants meaning to
allows the different pieces, which in the meantime have seemed incompatible,
rives mainly from the written form. In the asymmetrical relationship between
text and interpreter, one of the parties has to speak for them both. Thus con-
through the authorial intention, and, bereft of this necessary support, the text
In studying the metaphor, we are led to the need to envisage another level
of discourse; not of texts, but of words, and their capacity of evoking different
a point reached before the entry into the theory of the text—where the signs of
The title of one of Ricœur’s essays gives a concise resumé of its contents:
Structure, Word, Event (Ricœur, 1974b). The essay points to the word as
“the place in language where the exchange between structure and event is
functional position’ that arises from a duplicity in its nature. Within the
’language’1 there are only empty signs,2 but within the sentence these become
real words. Words are “signs in speech position” (Ricœur, 1974b, p. 92).
Ricœur places the word as the point of articulation “between semiology and
semantics, in every speech event.” This means that the word is at the same
time much less and much more than the sentence. It is less because of the fact
that only in the sentence does the word comes to life. From another point of
view the word is more than the sentence. The latter is a transitory event, but
the word is a part of the lasting order of language. “The word survives the
sentence”—it “returns to the system” after it has been used (Ricœur, 1974b,
this listener. As a consequence, every speech act adds to the word, so that it
this may be” (Ricœur, 1974b, pp. 92-93). Thus signs have an ’accumulative
language a history.
Whenever they are used, words aquire new meanings or nuances of mean-
ing without losing their old ones. This tendency towards expansion is the ori-
1
langue
2
In the structural system of language Ricœur adopts and modifies, symbols and tokens are
only defined internally through difference in value. The chain of definition recurs indefinately
within language, but need never in the original structuralist conception break outside of
language to find meaning.
Polysemy and Metaphor 33
polysemy that such central problems arise as metaphor and symbol on the one
All our words are polysemic. Their accumulative character means that they
receive a differentiated meaning from previous use and are still made capable
brought into the synchrony of the system. It is primarily within the system
that words have more than one possible meaning, but they have acquired this
potential in speech, and there they will gather more meaning. To understand
process, system and innovation. This dual character prevents it from becoming
pathological. On the one hand, the process of innovation and the polysemy
that results from it safeguard the system. Without polysemy the need to express
115). On the other hand it is the system which guards the word from becoming
words meaningless. Certain words, “because they signify too many things,
cease to signify anything” (Ricœur, 1974b, p. 69). The system has a regulative
the signs. Words have a certain ’literal’ meaning, a specific value within the
3
The capacity of a word (or other discursive token) to have more than one meaning. Self-
evident as it might seem in retrospect, this insight has profound implications.
34 The Tensional Conception of Metaphor
meanings reinforce each other, and other meanings are repressed. The context
of the sentence and the context of speech exclude them. “The word receives
from the context the determination that reduces its imprecision” (Ricœur, 1994,
words in a given context do not even cross our mind. “But the rest of the
semantic possibilities are not canceled; they float around the words as not
Consequences
Ricœur sketches two possible reactions to this situation. It gives rise to the
technical languages. In each sentence all the possible meanings of its words
should be erased minus one. The poetic strategy is exactly the opposite to this.
not combated but utilized. Of this ’creative use of polysemy’ (Ricœur, 1974b,
between the ’normal meanings’ of the words is so vigorous that these sen-
tences remain absurd as long as one holds to the accepted meaning of their
words. The only way of rescueing such a sentence is “to retain all the accept-
ations allowed plus one” (Ricœur, 1994, p. 131).5 The old connotations of the
4
It is precisely this reduction in polysemy that is the function and aim of hermeneutic
explanation in Ricœur’s theory.
5
“In the case of metaphor, none of the alread codified acceptations is suitable; it is necessary,
therefore, to retain all the acceptations allowed plus one.”
The Traditional Conception of Metaphor 35
words should be retained but from the tension between them originates a novel
metaphor is not a specific to the word but to the sentence; secondly, Ricœur’s
truth.
In the first of the eight studies that make up The Rule of Metaphor (Ricœur,
1994), Ricœur sketches two lines of thought that are to be found in the works
the seed of the rhetorical tradition Ricœur opposes, that regards metaphor as a
is from this model of poetic function the new concept of metaphorical truth
germinates.
The Rule of Metaphor may be read as, in the first place, an effort to overcome
of reality. In the terms of the two points formulated above, the linguistic part
of Aristotle’s theory which tied metaphor to the word is rejected, whereas the
The first decisive step in Ricœur’s theory moves from the rhetorical tradi-
of tension’.
with the unexpected word B’ instead of with its proper name A’. As everything
has its proper name (A is called A1 ), and every word has its literal meaning
used word for a literally used one. The ’raison’ of this substitution is resemb-
instead of B 1 the proper name for this ’something’ might as well have been
stood as soon as man has found ’the proper term for which an improper term
has been substituted’. The metaphor can be translated, for the proper name
can be restored.6 J.J.A. Mooij expands on this theme: “According to the sub-
be literal and equivalent to the metaphorical expression when put in its place”
or persuasive.
In the rhetorical view, metaphor does not provide any new or special
information. It only says what it says in a special way. This denial of any
revelatory power is the weakest point of this view. According to Ricœur the
fact, as if a word only has one literal meaning and becomes a metaphor when
used in another way. In reality meaning is, as has been said before, a fact of
Productive Tension
Study three of The Rule of Metaphor: Metaphor and the semantics of discourse, de-
velops this central thesis. Ricœur here links up with I.A. Richards, Max Black
6
“[S]ubstitution plus restitution equals zero” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 49).
7
Cf. Wittgenstein’s assertion in PU, §43: ’[T]he meaning of a word is its use in the language’.
The Traditional Conception of Metaphor 37
and Monroe Beardsley. In their view, metaphor originates from the interaction
of the different semantic fields to which words of the sentence belong. In one
utterance ’two thoughts of different things’ are, as Richards says, ’active to-
gether’, and the meaning of the utterance ’is the resultant of their interaction’.
This means that the metaphor “holds together within one simple meaning two
parts of the metaphor the tenor (its specific theme or underlying idea) and the
vehicle (the image used to ’carry’ this tenor). Both suggest a context of asso-
ciations of their own. The tension of these contexts engenders the metaphor.
This prevents one from “talking about tenor apart from the figure, and from
treating the vehicle as an added ornament”. Metaphor results from the clash
within a sentence? This is apparently true in, for instance, Black’s example
general idea of the sentence (the tenor) is to say something about the way in
another category, ’to plow’ (the vehicle). In Black’s terms the tension is one
between the frame of the sentence (which speaks about leadership) and the
focus (plowing, which expresses the character of this lead; it is on this word that
fields. But are there not sentences in which there is no apparent tension and
which are nevertheless metaphorical? In ’the shepherd watches over his flock’
there is no conflict between the common meanings of the words. But it is easy
it not right to call the sentence metaphorical in such an instanciation? Are there
not sentences in which the metaphorical process does not focus on the tension
between one word and the rest, but in which “all the suitable descriptive
words are metaphorical” (Mooij, 1976, p. 24)? It does not seem right to
Could we not rather say with van Es: “a metaphor is a case of ’nominating’
unusual use of a word” (van Leeuwen, 1981, p. 97, fn. 91). However, Ricœur
seems to be right in taking the tension of tenor and vehicle within a sentence
of tension will be recognized in units of speech larger than the sentence. The
tension between the semantic fields of its words and the context of discourse.
Metaphor is “a semantic event that takes place at the point where several se-
mantic impertinance”.8 When its words are taken according to their currently
The work of interpretation is then to find that sphere of meaning in which the
hitherto incompatible words generate a new sense so that this unusual net-
52), (Ricœur, 1991, p. 107). This turns the metaphor into “the central problem
A real ’live’ metaphor requires interpretation. This becomes all the more
8
J. Cohen, cf. (Ricœur, 1994, pp. 131-2)
9
Cf. the article of that name.
The Traditional Conception of Metaphor 39
distinguishes between the live and dead metaphors.10 This third type is that
of the trivial metaphors (Ricœur, 1991, p. 107). These are not novel and do
not require special interpretation, but they carry some informative value all
the same. In Black’s example: ’man is a wolf’, ’wolf’ evokes qualities which
are without difficulty associated with qualities of man. One does not really
need to question what qualities respectively a wolf and a man have an in which
surprising way they may have been compared. However this metaphor is not
a dead one, for it is not common speech to call man a wolf. It is not exactly
a live one either, because it functions by means of what Black calls a ’system
and yet this trivial metaphor gives some information that is not expressed by
tion. They are not easily understood from common associations. One has to
question what new association has been made. The real metaphor initiates a
The crucial question now is: from where does this dimension of meaning
one of its established connotations and some aspect of the designated thing.
words used. This is not to say that Ricœur rejects resemblance completely as
redefined.
categories that were hitherto distinct. Things that until that moment were "far
10
Dead metaphors are those which have been repeated so frequently that they became part
of the standard language of a linguistic community, i.e. part of the polysemy of a word.
11
Used as title of the sixth study of The Rule of Metaphor
40 The Tensional Conception of Metaphor
was neither seen nor expressed before. So Ricœur agrees with Aristotle that
But he stresses that this similarity was not already implied in the words but
resemblance more than those which simply register them” (Ricœur, 1975, p.
79).
construction of discourse.
ibility and sameness. The newly discovered resemblance does not rule out the
ceived despite difference, in spite of contradiction. The tension is not only one
tion between the sense of an expression and its reference. Thus, following this
poses that an expression has reference only in its use. Whether an expression
the act of discourse is performed, and not upon some aspect of the proposi-
a denotation in a strict sense, Ricœur’s theory dictates that all reference must
12
Cf. (Ricœur, 1994, p. 247) for these three applications of the theory of tension.
Metaphor and Reference 41
neccessarily fail.
tural method from its ideology and subsequently graft it onto a phenomeno-
logical hermeneutic.
Thus far metaphor has been described as an event within language. What
information does it provide about the world? What dimension of our being-
the transition from the question of the immanent sense to that of the outward
reference is the second decisive step in (Ricœur, 1994). This step is taken in the
42 The Tensional Conception of Metaphor
seventh study, Metaphor and Reference. It should be noted that, whereas the
the attention back to the larger units of discourse. A singular sentence does
Here we find the relation between Ricœur’s theories of metaphor and text.
strategy of a specific type of texts, the poetic ones. “It is the poetic work as
a whole, the poem, that projects a world” (Ricœur, 1994, p. 243). The poem
does so with the help of metaphors. The theory of metaphor is a theory of the
poetic work. In fact, this theory of poetics is intended to bring to light a more
of language, so the poem is the paradigm of its poetic function. The tendency of
Split Reference
certain sense it “abolishes reality” (Ricœur, 1994, p. 222). But this abolishment
Ricœur’s thesis is that “the suspension of reference in the sense defined by the
language does not have a reference that can be compared to that discourse
which describes the world objectively. But the reduction (or destruction) of
the world-as-it-is, is the condition for a new approach. The ordinary referential
metaphorical reference. Behind its first reference which ’abolishes’ the normal
It is not only a ’provocation’ as regards the literal meaning of words, but also
functioning of art in general and with that of the scientific model. With Nelson
Goodman he says that art reorganizes, remakes reality. A painting does not only
thing—which, in fact, may not be grey at all—from a specific angle and to see
its grey quality. This quality is not just emotional: it is an aspect of this thing
(Ricœur, 1994, pp. 234-5). In the same way metaphor re-describes reality. It
applies labels and schemas to things that, by the standard of ordinary speech,
do not fit each other. The grey picture is said to be ’sad’. This is logically
something that is no less real than the visible greyness. Like art, metaphor
does not merely ’copy’ reality, nor does it only express an emotion. It has an
imagination consists in seeing new connections via the detour of the thing
uncover new interpretations of reality. This power of discovery is, again, the
point of comparison with the metaphor. Like a model a metaphor uses images
which are well-known from one domain and transfers them to another in
(Ricœur, 1994, pp. 244-5). It does not describe reality in an ordinary way,
it is fiction; mythos. But this very fiction brings to light structures of life
that are more essential than those revealed by ordinary discourse. Poetry
between ordinary life and fiction. This tension between poetry and reality
is, on a larger scale, what the tension between the poetic metaphor and
reality is “in miniature”. Ricœur writes: “[Metaphor] takes part in the double
1994, p. 40). Metaphor instructs and enables man to look at his reality in a new
Ricœur (1994) draws far-reaching conclusions from his key concept of tension.
thing ’is’ as metaphor says it to be, but in spite of the ’is not’ metaphor reveals
Metaphor and Reference 45
qualities of reality that ’are’ for the one who looks at reality in a new way. Thus,
Ricœur posits, “the ’place’ of metaphor, its most intimate and ultimate abode,
is neither the name, nor the sentence, nor even discourse, but the copula of the
The ’is’ does not only bring incompatible words into a new relation of
say something on what nature is. But in this ’is’, the tension of identity and
“preserves the ’is now’ within the ’is”’ (Ricœur, 1994, p. 249), a truth which
includes “the critical incision of the (literal) ’is not’ within the ontological
literal ’is not’ absolute, however, would cause the claim that metaphor refers
that really explores the structures of the real world, turning the world of
poetry into a fictive, unreal one. A second naïveté acknowledges the claim of
metaphor to re-describe in its own, secondary way ’what is’ beyond the critical
between the explaining nature of the natural sciences and the understanding
nature of the social and humanistic sciences, and the Gadamerian dichotomy
for the authorial intention, Ricœur explores a very different concept of under-
the next chapter, I shall join Ricœur in an attempt at showing the possibility of
ation will be flawed, since understanding is both a prerequisite for the con-
two chapters how Ricœur operates with two very different concepts of under-
both within the realm demarcated by Gadamer as the locus of the hermeneutic
circle.
arc emerge. Both the objectivity resulting from it, and the room it carves out
will become clear. The case of the metaphor parallels the constructing process
character also shows how the sense arrived at through explanation releases
One of the central problems inherited from classical hermeneutics is the al-
leged irreducible differences between the natural and the human sciences. The
has been on both the epistemological and ontological levels On the epistem-
for Dilthey, meant understanding the psychic life of another person through
the ontological claim that the objects of these ways of knowing, Natur and
Geist, are irreducibly different. Another way of stating the dichotomy is to say
that ’explanation’ stands for the claim that there is no epistemological break
between the natural sciences and the human sciences, while ’understanding’
is the flag of the camp which claims that the social sciences are irreducible to
Dilthey to be the method of the social sciences, while explanation was the
method of the natural sciences. For him, any form of explanation was taken
from the domain of the natural sciences and so its use in the social sciences was
His main contention with the Romantic hermeneutics seems to be that the
psychic experience of the author, but because of the very nature of the verbal
intention of the text. The surpassing of this intention by the textual meaning
semantical space, which “the text has carved out by severing itself from the
The first move Ricœur therefore makes is to reemphasize, against classical her-
grasp his subjective intentions. This means that the text can be construed in
various ways and the author’s intention does not determine ’the correct inter-
pretation’. The fact is that the author can no longer “rescue” his work. His
and sometimes even detrimental with regard the interpretation of the verbal
meaning of his work. In the cases where circumstances demand that inform-
ation about the author be taken into account, effort should be made to incor-
porate this information “in light of the text itself” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 76).
Hence, even “[t]o construe the meaning as the verbal meaning of the text is to
Hirsch calls the “guess” or the attempt to construe the meaning of the text as
the verbal meaning of the text no longer coincides with its mental meaning or
intention. This intention is both fulfilled and abolished by the text, which is no
longer the voice of someone present. The text is mute, and the interpretative
situation thus represents an asymmetric relation between a text and its reader,
“The text,” Ricœur claims, “is like a musical score and the reader like an
to generate a new event beginning from the text in which the initial event has
been objectified.”
In other words, we have to guess at the meaning of the text because the au-
thor’s intention is beyond our reach. In fact, as we have already seen, not only
And the resulting semantic autonomy is what enables the subsequent process
Why do we have to construe texts? Not only because of symbols and other
multiple-meaning expressions which the text contains, but also because of the
interpretation.
Validation of Guesses
pretation as more probable than another. That a text allows for more than
one interpretation does not mean that all interpretations are equal. ’The lo-
for an agreement, even if this agreement remains beyond our reach (Ricœur,
1995b, p. 213).
evidence that support it, and ultimately in the consensus of those who are
knowledgeable in the area and participate in the debate. This is the rhetorical
element in hermeneutics.
In principle, every interpretation is defeasible (to use Hart’s term), and the
interpretitive results of the regional hermeneutics are not only the rules for
producing an interpretations; they are also the rules for refuting an interpreta-
tion. The example of judicial reasoning is especially fitting because the courts
are one of the main intersections of text and action, of words and deeds.
outside the text. As we have seen, Ricœur grants this kind of structural ex-
Ricœur’s position is rather that explanation in both the social sciences and
Interpretative Construal as Guessing 53
tions are not eliminated from the social sciences any more than structural ana-
lyses are eliminated from literary criticism. Both play a limited role within
the dialectic of explanation and understanding. His thesis is that the ana-
logy between text and action calls for a hermeneutic model in the social sci-
ences within which the empirical methods borrowed from the natural sciences
Connections Among the Theory of the Text, Theory of Action, and Theory
veloped. He says that in all three fields, a blunt opposition between explana-
understand the view that explanation and understanding would not constitute
called interpretation.’ (Ricœur, 1978a, p. 150). Ricœur begins with the the-
ory of text because semiotic explanation remains within the domain of signs
within which Dilthey made his plea for Verstehen. Thus it is not the case of an
With respect to the text, a dichotomy is uncovered. On one side stand those
who take the text to be a closed system with only internal relations. Analysis
of the text would exlude any “psychologizing” about the intentions of the
the author and to reestablish between the author and the reader the kind of
In place of this dichotomy, Ricœur argues for a dialectic which calls for a
ation no longer occurs. As he has already claimed, the text is always inde-
pendent from its author, its original references, its situations of production,
and, finally, its original audience. ’Literature,’ Ricœur says, ’in the etymolo-
gical sense of the word, infinitely exploits this gap and creates a totally differ-
literary criticism.
Despite the need for construction of a new sense and a holistic construal of
strued in more ways than one. At the lowest level, that of semiology, this
plurality of possible interpretations has two main sources, namely the poly-
of language, whereby the terms that constitute it are able to vary in meaning
over time.
In his article “On Different Kinds of Meaning and Discourse” (Pedersen, 1999),
description of different types of meaning, one of multiplicity, and the other one
of constraint of polysemy.
the two modes as givens in a situation of actualization (though only one of the
normative in the sense that it describes how such different objects (meaning-
one which seems to be true to the underlying idea behind the dichotomy),
Making Sense—The Function of Explanation 55
granting a valuable pair of conceptual tools for use in an analysis and critique
ative meaning(s). Pedersen passes beyond this schism by pointing out that
inant meaning need not be denotative, but can also be “emotive”. Though the
concept of emotive meaning in this context may prove a freshly opened can
sary to be able to account for literary meaning through this model on a general
basis.
“What makes meaning monotative,” says Pedersen, “is that there is one
Some meanings may still play a central role within this internal multiplicity
of meanings. The main shift is in the internal relationship within the meaning-
effects).
or, as in Pedersens words, they are “on an equal level, giving room to each
sen puts it, “interplay in a counter point-like way so as to make new qualities
emerge”.
Here the remapping of the terminology must depart from Pedersen’s con-
ception of these two kinds of meaning, for it is clear that he intends both kinds
virtuality, the well from whence meaning is poured back into reality. As lan-
guage is clothed in the guise of discourse, and is realized as event, the multi-
the shaping of the speaker’s intention and other circumstances, constricts the
through the effects of distanciation up to the point where it loses its grip on the
written discourse.
with regard to meaning. Its meaning is shaped through structure, but has lost
which has lost its character as event, and gained that of artefact. Thus it is
Two different tasks of interpretation are then demanded from the structural
Secondly, the analysis must account for the poetic language of the text,
Making Sense—The Function of Explanation 57
ive addition which refuses subsumption into the existing monotativity whilst
not crumbling the existing structure, since the meaning is new and a result of
Construal as Constriction
decisive moment in the process of explaining arises when the interpreter has
actual and unique, and restoring to it a character of event. This semantic event
takes place in the intersection between the semantic fields upon which the
interpreter has drawn. Through this construction, being the means whereby
the words as a whole make sense, the metaphorical twist becomes an event
in language.
lets the different pieces, having until now seemed incompatible, fall into place.
In a semiotic sense, the web has the function of constraint on the operative
symbols or terms of the text, forcing them to act upon each other and at the
same time constrain each others’ potentiality for polysemy and mesh into a
element necessitating the process of construction. Qua whole, the literary work
different ways of construction, where the relationship between the whole and
contained in the text itself. These lead the further construction in given
directions, and at the same time closes off other venues as no longer valid.
ation consists in one of the points already mentioned, namely the possibility
on the same text. Ricœur replies that it is possible to discern between the
probability of different constructions, but not to say that one of them is more
true than the others. The most likely construction is the one which on the one
side accounts for the largest number of facts presented by the text, including
its potential connotations, and on the other hand offers a qualitatively better
match between the features it brings into account. The consideration of such
constructions will have the form of a debate or argumentation, not one of em-
fulfilment.
But the movement must also go in the other direction, from explanation to
community. But, Ricœur is quick to add, this does not mean that we fall back
in the trap of psychologism. It is not the psychic life of the author lying behind
the text that we seek to understand. It is the world of the text, the possible
the text.
What a reader receives is not just the sense of the work, but,
through its sense, its reference, that is, the experience it brings to
language and, in the last analysis, the world and the temporality it
unfolds in the face of this experience.
— (Ricœur, 1988, pp. 78-9)
In this quote from Time and Narrative, Ricœur makes explicit in the mode
of reception a split between sense and reference also with regard to meaning.
Literary criticism is left not only with a goal in Ricœur’s theory, it also has a
text and reader is the one of the conflict between the forces of distanciation
proper to the text and those of appropriation belonging to the reader. Out of
60 The Validity of Interpretations
search for the historical clue to the true meaning of the text.
The stress here is rather on configuration, that is, the second classification
into the mode of organization, of composition of that world that looms as the
necessary task. In other words, it is the analysis of the very principle of internal
order that gives the work its unity and identity and that is, of course, the object
of all formal inquiry. The only notable difference between this mode of inquiry
and the many valuable formalist approaches of narratology, is that in this case,
this is one phase in the process of interpretation that will not attain its final goal
dialectic of inquiry. The two levels of inquiry are the organizational structure
of the work and the world-making which emerges from the work. This is not
Ricœur is arguing for interaction, not for separation. With structure the critic
moves from the parts toward a total organization, and with world-making
between text and critic for the benefit of the critic and all those who share in the
but only a temporary pause necessary to allow another player to enter the
court. This does not mean that there is no sense of truth or of knowledge in the
interpretive process, for the very goal of interpretation must be to share one’s
insights with others. But what this theory does mean is that there can be no
valid claim to definitive meaning of the text, for this claim would kill the text,
would remove it from the process and render it consumed and empty. Nor
can a critic substitute the reconstituted historicity of the text for the text itself.
The historical context of the text must be inserted into the dialectic process
The Role of Literary Criticism 61
considerations of a text are not the text itself, but only one factor among many
that are needed to move the analytic structure of the text into an engagement
with the intentional unity of the text as the essential feature of understanding.
The driving force behind the desire to know is the need to make the world
over in terms that are meaningful. This is the polar force of the reader’s appro-
priation. On the other side the thought of another when separated from that
an alien and disturbing view of the world. If I choose to engage the otherness
redescribing the world, my world first, and the worlds of others subsequently.
This interpretive process begins with the analytic power of explanation and
Literature is consequently the corpus of texts that have the capacity to promote
how well done. On the contrary, the structural analysis is only the starting
point. At this stage, the interpretation has yet to reach past the level of
textuality, and strive towards what the text is about—the realm of hermeneutic
Metaphor has thus far been described as an event within language. What
information does it provide about the world? What dimensions of our being-
the transition from the question of a text’s immanent sense to that of its
This study is attempted by Ricœur in the seventh study of The Rule of Metaphor,
Metaphoric Reference
sentence, the question of reference leads attention back to the larger units of
discourse. A singular sentence does not by itself have the potential to break
free from the restraints of textuality and burst forth into the world of the
the mediation of the literary work or poem as an ordered, generic and singular
totality.
We find here the relation in Ricœur’s theories between the levels of meta-
phor and text. The theory of the text reveals an existential function of language,
cific type of texts, namely the poetic ones. ’It is the poetic work as a whole, the
poem, that projects a world’ (Ricœur, 1994, p. 243). The poem does so with
the help of metaphors. The theory of metaphor is on this level a theory of po-
etic language as actualized in the poetic work. In fact, this theory of poetics
is the paradigm of its poetic function. The tendency of the theory of the text is
The step across the threshold of reference is a decisive one. It is not too
language should have a reference. Ricœur has to deal with objections raised
sake. The critics Ricœur has in mind are not in the first place structuralists,
between sense and sound’, going nowhere like a dance. The informative power
not outward towards a world, but inward towards a state of the soul.
istic one: all language that is not descriptive, in the sense of giving information
about facts, must be emotional. The choice for poetry as a language of pure in-
the world. In a certain sense it ’abolishes’ reality. But this abolishment may be
which intends to establish a new way of relating to the world. Ricœur’s thesis
can be compared to that discourse which describes the world objectively. But
words of Lacan. as regards that literal meaning of words, but also as regards our
Split Reference
Ricœur suggests that the expression ’split reference’ adequately conveys the
is no less about reality than any other use of language but refers to it by the
reference, an indirect reference built on the ruins of the direct reference. But
this second-order reference appears as such only with respect to the primacy
of reference of ordinary language, which obeys our interest for control, ma-
This referential concept must take into account the eclipse of a first level of
reference and the emergence of a second level of reference, that is, the concept
poetic meaning grounded in the eclipsed literal meaning. Ricœur is saying that
The concluding chapter of The Rule of Metaphor brings this argument to frui-
tition, and indicates the future course of Ricœur’s development in his philo-
from the tension not just between the terms of a metaphorical statement, but
also between two levels of interpretation: the literal level, which is restricted to
the established value of words in the lexicon, and a metaphorical level result-
ing from innovation thrust upon these words in order to make sense of them
in terms of the whole work. The resulting gain in meaning is not yet the con-
need for interpretation. Because the gain in meaning is caught in the conflict of
’same’ and ’different,’ it is unstable and volatile. This tensional situation of the
split reference is lodged within the copula of the utterance. The ontological
this way, the dynamism of meaning allowed access to the dynamic vision of
the mediating role of the suspension (epoché). This role in the functioning of
the functioning of sense. ’In the same way as the metaphorical sense not only
abolishes but preserves the literal sense, the metaphorical reference maintains
the ordinary vision with the new one it suggests.’(Ricœur, 1978b, p. 154)
All transitions from discourse to praxis are rooted in the outwards redirec-
Taking the notion of depth semantics as his guideline, Ricœur returns to the
problem of the reference of the text, and is this time able to give a name to the
regarding what is usually called the sense of the text” (Ricœur, 1976, p. 87).
The sense of a text is not behind the text, but in front of it. It is not something
hidden, but something disclosed. What has to be understood is not the initial
and his situation and seeks to grasp the world-proposition opened up by the
reference of the text. To understand a text under this mode, is to follow its
movements from sense to reference; from what it says to what it talks about.
In this process, the mediating role played by the structural analysis constitutes
both the justification of the objective approach and the rectification of of the
This is the reference borne by by the depth semantics. The text speaks
fiction and poetry, “is the condition of possibility for the freeing of a second
order reference, which reaches the world not only at the level of manipulable
objects, but at the level that Husserl designated by the expression Lebenswelt
Yet if we can no longer define hermeneutics in terms of the search for the
psychological intentions of another person which are concealed behind the text,
Appropriation
speak, created by the work itself. A work opens up its readers, and thus creates
its own subjective vis-à-vis. As the work involves the interpreter and opens
but through having the interpreter risk his own being and open himself up to
it is the problem of the reader’s access to the text, understood as its use in
the present situation of the reader. In his treatment of the theme, however, he
This distance is not dissolved through appropriation, but is rather its opposite.
Thanks to the distancing of the text, appropriation no longer bears the mark
tions displayed by the work, since Ricœur claims that to the degree appropri-
ation is not directed towards the author, it is directed towards the meaning of
Above all, the vis-à-vis of appropriation is what Gadamer calls the matter
of the text, and what Ricœur calls the world of the work.
structing constitution that the subject possesses a privileged key to. It would
be more correct to say that the self is constituted by the world of the text.
when it touches on those particular entities of discourse called texts, that is,
more complex compositions than the sentence. The question henceforth arises
in the context of hermeneutics rather than semantics. For which the sentence
is at first and the last entity” (Ricœur, 1994, p. 219). The disciplines of meaning
“The question of reference is posed here in terms that are singularly more
complex; for certain texts, called literary, seem to constitute an exception to the
219). The challenge of highly structured, figurative language texts is taken up.
character that makes it an individual among the other individuals with which
The more complex nature of the literary text demands a more elaborate
reference that is common to didactic texts, there can be no doubt that, if all
reference to the world of action had been eliminated, literary discourse would
Understanding 71
Ricœur puts it this way: “The literary work through the structure proper to
it displays a world only under the condition that the reference of descriptive
ical statement captures its sense as metaphorical amidst the ruins of the literal
sense, it also achieves its reference upon the ruins of what might be called (...)
grows clear that the emergence of this double reference, or split reference, of
literary texts is not to be located at the semantic level of the sentence, but rather
at the hermeneutic level of the work. The primacy of the poetic function over
the referential function does not eliminate reference, only makes it ambiguous.
Ricœur shall point out, is the basis of creativity. A theory of literary criticism
is now in view, for it is within the very analysis of metaphor as paradigm that
Understanding
works as a meaning which is not to be found behind the text, but in front of it,
the foundation is already in place for a strong displacement with regard to the
which the reader must make an effort to locate, but something disclosed.
72 Reference and Meaning
Texts addresses the interpreter about possible worlds, and about ways of
orienting in these worlds. In this way Ricœur claims to find a parallel in the
its movement from what the work says to what it says something about. Bey-
ond his situation as a reader, and beyond the role of the author, the interpreter
offers himself up to the possible modes for being-in-the-world the text opens
up and discloses for him. This is how Ricœur understands Gadamer’s concept
of fusion of horizons.
the function of rewriting the interpreter’s reality in the confrontation with the
not completed through the readers insight into the meaning of the work, but in
his insight into his own being which is placed in new light, a new perspective
through the reference of the work. The function of reference is thus fulfilled
Redefining Subjectivity
Ricœur criticizes the cogito tradition for the claim that the subject has a possib-
he claims, through the long detour through the signs of humanity as recor-
ded in the works of culture. This is what causes his break with Heideggerian
Redefining Subjectivity 73
perception of its own being, whilst he ought to have taken the road through a
the self, if these had not been brought to language and articulated by literature?
covers as the pattern of the text, is the very medium wherein we can understand
ourselves.
have examined in The Rule of Metaphor under the title of ’metaphorical refer-
with the problem posed by the capacity diplayed by language to reorder the
through is made in experience, that is to say, we are invited to read our own
experience in accordance with the new modalities of language. But there was
a link missing in this analysis when it is kept at the level of metaphor: the role
of the reader.
claims to avoid unless it is necessary. In Time and Narrative two entire distinct
namely the transformation of one’s own experience under the effect of the
narrative.
it has always operated best - the narrative. But it is the third volume which is
of our own experience in accordance with the main lines of the narrative?
and reality, experience or the world, whatever term you like, is a dialectical
one: given that the sign is not the thing, that the sign is in retreat in relation to
becomes for itself a spoken universe. Whence the legitimacy of the discourse
of linguists who exclude the extralinguistic from their field and resolutely
considering that it is from sign to sign, then from book to book, in a vast
Unlike Saussure, who constructed his theory on the sign and on the differ-
ential relations between signs, -Benveniste began with the sentence, which he
posesses not only a signified but also an intended, that is to say, it aims at reality.
of the signifier. Language, in his opinion, means the world because it has first
left the world; in this way it initiates a movement of reconquest of the reality
Ricœur sets the function of the sign particularly appropriate to the narrative,
the capacity of the work to restructure the world of the reader in unsettling,
reality but in restructuring the world of the reader in confronting him or her
with the world of the work; and it is in this that the creativity of art consists
rereading of our own experience in accordance with the main lines of the
narrative? Ricœur returns here, in a more plausible and better argued fashion,
lanugage, namely that the relation between language and reality, experience
or the world, is a dialectical one. Given that the sign is not the thing, but the
to sign, then from book to book, in a vast relation of intertextuality that the
1998, p. 86).
expression, language is “poured back into the universe” (Ricœur, 1998, p. 173).
Chapter 6
Conclusion
of Paul Ricœur to the field of literary interpretation in general and the philo-
its field of study, interpretation, which has presented itself as a most diverse
attempt to draw out this aspect of what has been presented, or it will suffer a
The challenge is rather to deliver the element of the whole of Ricœur’s the-
ory which is still missing, namely that of a coherent and consistent structure,
enabling us to view the dynamic again, only this time from a distance, focus-
ing instead on the interplay of parts that results from Ricœur’s integration and
78 Conclusion
The immediate outline of the structures put in play are implied in Joseph Mar-
from one’ theory of the nature of what it is that may or must be submitted to
guage. The three units of language he presents; word, sentence and text,
tions start to appear, and the internal structure of the three levels grows more
complex.
On all three levels there are recurring patterns. Between each of the adja-
cent ones, a dynamic of interrelation appears. The word, for instance, coexists
in discourse and langue, and thus has both a character as virtual multitativity
and actualized monotative denotation. In the extension of this, we can see that
bursts out of the textuality of the sentence or text and contributes to the world
of the work.
The pattern repeats on the next level, albeit with a slight permutation.
This resultant structure, being at the same time a template for appropri-
Ramifications
The implications of the uncovered structures are quite subtle, but far-reaching
making its resulting depth structure more subjective—rather the other way
over time, and (conversely) the interpretation of poetic texts contribute to the
language competency, since Ricœur posits that not all linguistic innovations
are adopted into the langue, but that the development is guided by those with
Last, but not least of the features deducible from the structure laid out by
the sense-potential of the text, and this in turn creates the room for an objective
dialectic. To “make one’s own” what was previously “foreign”, remains the
Clearly this cannot be a goal for Ricœur’s dialectic. The function of appropri-
And so it is. Far from saying that a subject already mastering his own
way of being in the world projects the a priori of his self-understanding of the
text and reads it into the text, Ricœur presents interpretation as the process of
disclosure of new modes of being giving the subject new capacity for knowing
If the reference of the text is the project of a world, then it is not the
his capacity for self-projection by receiving a new mode of being from the text
itself.
ures. Only the interpretation that complies with the injunction of the text, ini-
self, which proceeds from understanding of the text, to the ego, which claims
to precede it. It is the text, in other words, with its universal power of world
The Challenge of Ricœur’s Theory 81
Texts by Ricœur
➤ Complete text.
(100 pages)
Semeia 4, 1975
➤ Biblical Hermeneutics
(115 pages)
Secondary Literature
Opuscula 2, 1999
➤ Arild Pedersen: On Different Kinds of Meaning and Discourse
(10-23)
➤ Arild Pedersen: On the Distinction Between Understanding and Interpreta-
tion
(24-36)
Black, M. (1962). Models and metaphors: studies in language and philosophy. Ithaca,
N. Y. : Cornell University Press.
Japp, U. (1977). Hermeneutik: der theoretische Diskurs, die Literatur und die Kon-
struktion ihres Zusammenhanges in den philologischen Wissenschaften. München:
W. Fink.
Ricœur, P. (1974b). Structure, word, event. See Ricœur (1974a), pp. 79–96.
Ricœur, P. (1995d). The task of hermeneutics. See Ricœur (1995b), pp. 43–62.