description
Following the so-called interpretive turn at the end of the last century, literary interpretation gained an important position in literary science. Broadly speaking, literary interpretation is a social practice that preserves the etymological meanings of the notion of interpretation: "explanation", "clarification", "elucidation", "meaning", "conception", today centred more around understanding. A broader definition of literary interpretation also takes into account the significance of literary reading, paralleled to literary interpretation in various ways, whether as its synonym, hypernym or hyponym. In adopting a narrower view of interpretation, I take into account Eco's and Culler's definitions by - from the four links of purpose, text, co-text and reader - highlighting the very purpose of the text. I propose a two-tier structure of literary interpretation in which the different degrees and processes - perceiving, experiencing, analysing, clarifying, explaining, comparing, assessing and attributing meaning - are intertwined, complementary and self-contained, whereby the circular integration of parts into a whole is of crucial importance. The first phase, which is dominated by perception, experience and analysis, "repeats the content" and reflects upon the reading process at a more simple level, taking into account acceptance, experience and description or structure analysis. The second phase comprises clarification, explanation, comparison and comprehension of meanings by looking for sense in the appropriate contexts, although elements of the first phase may also appear, while the most syncretic and summarising processes are those of evaluation and assigning meaning, in the sense of positioning the text in the valid systems of literary and cultural values as well as recognising the mediocrity or exceptional value of the interpreted text.