Dickman/Interpretation, 5. The Practices of Interpretation

Chapter Five, The Practices of Interpretation, examines the social aspects and institutional elements of interpretation. How do communities of readers establish and change canons of acceptability for some interpretations and not others? How do different interpretive communities incorporate critical perspectives such as Critical Race Theory, Crip Theory, Feminist Criticism, and more? We will detail the three fundamental steps of the hermeneutic arc: from initial guess, to critical explanation, to a culminating comprehension. The process and dynamism of interpretation involves all of these but grasping this involves distinguishing interpretation from explanation and clarifying existential appropriation and application.