Interpretive Acts: In Search of Meaning

Over the last twenty years, the humanities and social sciences have become peculiarly preoccupied with the limitations of language—especially what language cannot do. Rather than ask whether communication is possible, this study explores how it occurs. Drawing on a variety of fields that have contributed to literary theory—including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, philosophy of language, and rhetorical theory—Harris defines the goal of interpretation as uncovering an author's intended meaning, and considers criticism in terms of the question "What does it mean that the author meant that meaning?" He examines the shared components of context that govern the interpretations of language-in-use presupposed by any critical analysis or evaluation, arguing that seven dimensions of mutually understood context, calculated by authors and relied upon by readers, make language understandable to all.