Today’s Plan:
- A Brief History of Hermeneutics
- Rock Out
- Homework
A Brief History of Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation. Its origins are usually traced back to St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430), and his work On Christian Doctrine (which has been historically renamed On Christian Teaching). Augustine attempted to develop a methodology to help aspiring priests in the growing Catholic church better command their understanding of the Bible. He also wanted to provide them with methods for untangling some of the apparent contradictions in the Bible, to work through difficult passages that seemed to go against accepted doctrine or expected ideas. Augustine presents two key strategies here. First, we must be aware of the historical and cultural context in which a work is situated. Writers exist in a world, and that world will influence what they write. Lives are lived, experiences happen, and by knowing more about the life and experiences of a writer, we can be on the lookout for themes in a text. Second, and more germane to what I want to do today, strong interpretations are built throw a circular and oscillating process–a specific detail in the text connected back to a theory of a theme. The more details we compile, the better we can refine our sense of the theme. We must ask how every image, metaphor, every word compliments our theory of the theme. Everything must be accounted for.
How do we deal with the pieces, the words, that we do not understand or that seem to contradict that theme? Rather than ignore them, we can ask if the fault lies with us–do we simply not understand them? Then acknowledge that, leave it to the reader to see the limitations of our interpretation and perhaps offer their own perspective. Can we posit that the writer has perhaps lost themselves? Writers are not perfect–they, too, are human (even, Augustine would note, when divinely inspired), and a contradiction in a text might simply be a moment of the writer’s confusion to master the ideas they are working through.
So, when it comes to interpreting a text, we have two guiding principles:
- Text as reflection of attitude toward world and life [Context]
- Interpretation as oscillation between specific detail and authorial purpose
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, hermeneutics have moved away from a strict view of authorial purpose–“reader response” theory invests itself in how a text communicates to a particular reader. Think of Sicart’s “post-phenomenological” method that I endorsed in our first project–the way a game makes *you* feel is important, and we cannot assume that everyone will have the same affective response. Nor can we assume the text will communicate in the same way.
Here is one way that literary theory and rhetorical theory tend to differ. Rhetorical theory still places more importance on the writer’s initial intentions (what Kenneth Burke would call the Agent-Purpose ratio). This doesn’t mean we do not identify and investigate meanings that the writer *didn’t* intend–certainly, words and meanings are not subject to authorial control, they write us sometimes, play with us. Words often inhabit and use humans as much as we use them. That is another lecture for another day. So a few other questions:
- What did the writer attempt to communicate? [Note: Don’t always trust writers on the meaning of their on work. They are cagey folk.]
- What other cultural meanings, social meanings, political meanings, might this text represent that the writer didn’t necessarily intend?
- Why is/n’t this text relevant or meaningful to me?
Rock Out
Today’s exercise grows out of the first papers–I’ve seen a few people struggle a bit to articulate a game’s theme. Some offer one word or a short phrase that speaks more to a game’s broad topic without really focusing in on a prescriptive message. I’ll say again: I think artists create art to tell us something about how to endure life, how to live it well, how to change our society (or oursekves) to make it easier to live. Burke once said that studying rhetoric is “equipment for living” in a complex world with diverse people and serious problems. I would tweak that a bit and say that art is tools for enduring, appreciating, and changing our mortal journey. Highs and lows (and, hey, I grew up with grunge in the 1990’s and have lived through some darker times, so “enduring” feels a bit more relatable).
Okay, three (maybe four) contemporary songs to think about how to practice hermeneutics. First listen: give me a word that describes the feel/theme of this song. The first lines of our hermeneutic circle start there. Next, we take a stab at “what is this song about?” Then we start pulling out details that support that idea and help us sharpen it. Can we arrive at a “What is this singer trying to say?” and can we show that the details fit? What parts of the song are “leftovers?”
- NNAMDI, “Sudafed.” (2023). Link to lyrics.
- The Beths, “Expert in a Dying Field.” (2022). Link to lyrics.
- Spanish Love Songs, “Routine Pain.” (2022). Link to lyrics
- Soul Coughing, “True Dreams of Wichita.” (1994). Link to lyrics.
When designing this, I thought about focusing on songs that are explicitly aiming a tragic narrative, but I didn’t do that. Instead, I’ve grabbed a few contemporary songs that have a somewhat tragic feel and (I think) are lyrically engaging. Let’s see if you agree.
My plan for Friday is to talk about how we might apply this method to a video game.
Homework
In Friday’s class I will have people sign up for mini-presentations. We’ll divide these presentations up over four days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday of next week and the Monday of Week 8). As of now we have 23 active people in the class, but only 20 people have turned in the Procedural Analysis Paper. If you haven’t turned in a Procedural Analysis Paper by Friday, then I will not allow you to sign up for a presentation.
Presentations are short papers–I am expecting that you will read a paper. Depending on how many presentations we have per day (which I will know on Friday), you will have around 6-8 minutes (3 to 4 pages double spaced) to present. I would like a Google slides presentation to accompany your paper. We’ll talk more about this on Friday and I will provide you with a Google Slides template that you can copy and populate.
At this point, you should be able to sift through your gaming journal and focus on how one or two elements of tragedy that we have discussed so far resonate in 2-3 scenes of your game. You likely haven’t finished your game yet, but you likely have theories about its purpose, ideas about how you do/not relate to the protagonist, etc.
