Abstract

The concept of narrative matters to hermeneutics for two reasons. First, whatever else hermeneutics is, it is the practice and theory of the interpretation of texts. But narrative also matters to hermeneutics for a deeper reason. Hermeneutics is not just the interpretation of texts; it is also a philosophical outlook, one that sees the topics of meaning and interpretive understanding as central to the business of philosophy. Hence, the study of narrative presents specialized versions of many of the questions that have been raised about hermeneutics as a philosophical outlook. Its different meanings all orbit around a core meaning connected with the symbolic representation of action. Even White, who calls narratives verbal fictions, thinks these fictions can say something true. Finally, the relationship between narratives and reality is difficult to clarify, because narratives describe an order that inheres in things themselves but that is transformed in being brought to language.