Phenomenology and Hermeneutics in Literary Criticism

1. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics in Literary Criticism Manuel Echevarria Soto ENGG 630 Prof. E. Lugo February 18, 2009.

2. Objectives

3. OBJECTIVES • To understand what hermeneutical phenomenology is. • To view the approach of this ideas in the literary criticism

4. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY

5. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY What is hermeneutical phenomenology? Hermeneutical phenomenology studies interpretive structures of experience, how we understand and engage things around us in our human world, including ourselves and others (Woodruff, 2008) Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer sought to uncover the life world or human experience as it is lived (Laverty, 2003)

6. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY What is hermeneutical phenomenology? Key Terms (from Siegel, n.d.) • Dasein - simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects the things of the world and at the same time is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson 52). • Intentionality – “is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented to experience." (Lye, 1996).

7. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY What is hermeneutical phenomenology? • Phenomenological Reduction - a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl; as explained by Terry Eagleton, "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin"

8. PHENOMENOLOGY

9. PHENOMENOLOGY What is phenomenology? Phenomenology is when we classify, describe, interpret, and analyze structures of experiences in ways that answer to our own experience (Woodruff, 2008).

10. HERMENEUTICS

11. HERMENEUTICS What is hermeneutics? Hermeneutic is: • is the art of interpreting (Abulad, 2007) • Majorly used in theology

12. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY in LITERARY CRITICISM

13. LITERARY CRITICISM How hermeneutical phenomenology is used in literary criticism? As Valdes remarks in Phenomenological Hermeneutics and the Study of Literature, the makeup of a text is: form, history, the reading experience, and the interpreter's self-reflection (Lye, 1996). Form is a way of structuring the symbolic world so that there is shareability

14. LITERARY CRITICISM Possible Examples

15. LITERARY CRITICISM How hermeneutical phenomenology is used in literary criticism?

16. Thank You!

17. REFERENCES References Abulad, R. (2007) What is Hermeneutics? Kritike. Vol 1 2. pp 11 – 23 Retrieved on February 16, 2009 from www.kritike.org/journal/issue_2/abulad_december2007.pdf Laverty, S. (2003) Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Phenomenology: A Comparison of Historical and Methodological Considerations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 2 (3) Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/2_3final/pdf/laverty.pdf

18. REFERENCES References Lye, J. (1996) Some Principles of Phenomenological Hermeneutics. Department of English Language and Literature. Brock University. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/ph.php Siegel, K. (n.d.) Introduction to Modern Literary Theory. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm WoodruffSmith, D. (2008) Phenomenology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/#1