Interpreting” Period.

End of the sentence” through Gadamerian Philosophy

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s account of hermeneutics has become the account of truth and
meaning in the humanities. His ideas have been accepted as the best way to understand to
what happens when we are reading a text, or interpreting and now we are starting to
assimilate the ideas and communication and what they have to teach us, just learning to
adapt our view to the information they gave. His idea of philosophical hermeneutics works
on two levels not only it is hermeneutics of language, it is also a philosophical idea. Inspired
from his teacher Heidegger. Not only language of words put a structure of reality, language
as something that gives us the way we experience the world and in the ways we exist as
human beings through embodiment, through ideas. This helps to realise the reality and
helps create ourselves as the part of the world in which we live.
Gadamer treats understanding and interpretation as a creative process for which cultural
belonging is hardly problematic, instead he maintains that the understanding and
interpretation of a tradition also contribute to its production. His hermeneutics centres on
language and conversation.
His idea is always going back to the idea that the spiritual and the scientific realist, the
modern side of liberal cosmopolitan world can go together to make a fruitful form of
contemporary society.
Gadamer wants us to see ourselves within being, within language, within culture, within
community, and being as players within the larger game. So, there are two entailments of
language of meaning and reality. First is that, truth is not therefore completely relative in
fact truth depends on particular rules that are bringing together all the other elements into
the shared language or world. It means that reality is robust, this leaves a great room for
creativity as it determines that each play is the creation of elements that make them up.
Gadamer does not priorities the past but his motive is to empower everyone who is
involved with language of each moment. This was criticised by Jurgen Habermas, that this
concept makes it difficult for people to develop new ideas, hence not allowing the
possibilities for future transformation, for younger generation to effect revolutionary
changes. Gadamer accounted this, that the radical change can be affirmed or enabled by an
understanding of the past background set of ideas that make new formulations possible.
He believed that truth is not something that can be affirmed to a certain criteria, but it is an
event or experience which we find ourselves engaged and changed.
He emphasises on the goal of communication which according to him, is to be willing to
change, to be willing to transform your own views into something else. The idea, that
people bring their different thought worlds together, they bring it for the purpose of
growing , of changing not only the other persons idea but also their own , goes to the heart
of what hermeneutics mean as not only the description of truth , but also the practice of
self-transformation and “the fusion of horizons” we should see.
My Interpretation
PERIOD. The end of sentence….the documentary is aimed at unwrapping, stigma, fear,
insecurity, ignorance and bad education inherent in a women’s life. This short film, about a
village Hapur, miles away from Delhi, describes the effort of the local women to educate,
and instil the awareness and accessibility to sanitary pads. The film opens inside a room,
two girls in their adolescent years, shying away when asked to talk about menstruation. We
see that reality is misconstrued, and there are bitter truth that surround menstruating
women. As pointed out by Arunachalam Murauganantham, a social activist, who aims at
making India a 100 percent napkin using country.
Zehtabchi, the director presents us with a series of interviews of both men and women
leading to the heart of the problem that freedom of women continues to be in the hands of
dominant patriarchal society. In a country, where we talk of great scientific exploration and
technological advancements, it is very saddening to see that these women till date face
embarrassment and walk for miles concerning a normal biological process. The superstition,
where elders of the village call it “Bad Blood” and we see young housewives speaking about
the discarded cloth they use to wipe the “disease “away.
The situations changes when Sneha, a strong- willed girl , who wants to join the police force,
along with Rekha, and Shabana (Social Worker) , decides to recruit these women to work in
her small pad machine factory. And soon we see the girls on the sales trip to promote “FLY”
pads, which is their creation.
All of this makes a journey of transition. Here, where women have been subject to
restrictions in their daily lives simply because they are menstruating. They are also often
restricted from offering prayers and touching holy books. Cultural norms and religious
taboos are equated with evil spirits, shame and embarrassment surrounding reproduction.
Such taboos impact on girls and women’s emotional state, mentality and lifestyle as a
whole. The impact has been as brutal as girls in lesser developed parts of the country, drop
out of school when they begin menstruating.
Through this depiction of the problem, one has tried to bring to light the concept “fusion of
horizons” by Gadamer, where we see the rural women fusing with the point of views of
social workers who are following a strategic approach in combating the myths and social
taboos associated with menstruation in order to improve the reproductive health of
adolescent girls and women. Increasing the education status of women plays an important
role in improving the health status of a community at large. Gadamer’s importance on
dialogue and interaction as a central point to arrive to something better has been clearly
displayed in this film , as women after a series of conversations , are waking up to the
importance of using a sanitary pad , as a means to maintain hygiene and comfort during
their biological monthly routines. The educative conversations are fusing the horizons of
modernity with tradition, resulting in women slowly moving towards the hygienic practices.
The film clarifies the belief, in company of tenacious women.
My interpretation or rather understanding of this well acclaimed film, roots from the past
and prevailing understanding of the Menstruation, which have had its different
interpretations at different times, right from considering women sacred and powerful, to
menstrual blood being considered dangerous to the dogmatic beliefs considering women as
impure. This film depicts the sad prevailing conditions and dogmas attached to the most
natural biological process of a women’s body. The fact that women are open to change
through conversation, depicts aspirations unfazed by reality and very well reminds of
Gadamers idea of contributing to create ourselves as the part of the world in which we live.