Instructions
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Interpretation in our own time, however, is even more complex. For the contemporary zeal for the project of interpretation is often prompted not by piety toward the troublesome text (which may conceal an aggression), but by an open aggressiveness, an overt contempt for appearances. The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one. The most celebrated and influential modern doctrines, those of Marx and Freud, actually amount to elaborate systems of hermeneutics, aggressive and impious theories of interpretation. All observable phenomena are bracketed, in Freud’s phrase, as manifest content. This manifest content must be probed and pushed aside to find the true meaning—the latent content beneath. For Marx, social events like revolutions and wars; for Freud, the events of individual lives (like neurotic symptoms and slips of the tongue) as well as texts (like a dream or a work of art)—all are treated as occasions for interpretation. According to Marx and Freud, these events only seem to be intelligible. Actually, they have no meaning without interpretation. To understand is to interpret. And to interpret is to restate the phenomenon, in effect to find an equivalent for it.
Thus, interpretation is not (as most people assume) an absolute value, a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities. Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. It is a means of revising, of transvaluing, of escaping the dead past. In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly and stifling.
Question 13.
What does the author mean by “Thus, interpretation is not…a gesture of
mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities?”
Question Explanation
The phrase "interpretation is not…a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities" implies that interpretation is not a static or unchanging mental process. Instead, it is a dynamic and context-dependent activity that involves revisiting and reinventing meanings based on the historical and cultural context. Option E best expresses the idea that interpretation is about engaging with and reshaping meanings in response to evolving contexts, aligning well with the author's intent in the passage.
Option A: The passage does not specifically discuss evaluation in terms of authority but emphasizes the act of interpretation itself.
Option B: The passage suggests the opposite, highlighting the dynamic and historical nature of interpretation.
Option C represents the old style of interpretation, which the passage contrasts with the modern style of excavation and destruction.
Option D: The passage does not attribute interpretation to timeless experts but rather explores its historical and cultural variability.
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