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Critical Mode of Inquiry                         

Nature of "Knowledge"

The mode of inquiry is not an exotic one—it is, in fact, the central mode of inquiry in literary studies. In keeping with the tradition of textual interpretation from which it derives, I will call it Hermeneutical, and its practitioners, the Critics.  It has three major concerns: a) establish a body of texts, usually called a canon, for interpretation; b) the interpretation of those texts; and c) generating theories about those texts and their interpretations. What constitutes a canon? How should interpretation of it proceed? And to what end?

The nature of Hermeneutical knowledge is about the meaning of texts, derived from the act of reading, articulated as critical analysis, and refined by dialectic. Its structure is canonical; that is, it takes its shape from the texts upon which it is founded. And its logic, as in other Scholarly inquiry, is dialectical; that is, the central texts, serving as points of dialectical contact, provide the basis for the confrontation of more or less coherent and systematic opposed world views.

It has two sets of rules. The empirical rules govern the establishment of the text or texts to be interpreted, setting standards of sufficiency, authenticity, and accuracy.  The second set of rules deals with the introduction of an interpretation for community consideration.

Two outposts
1) establish and interpret a specifically composition-based canon (Writing Studies?)--Kinneavy
2) establish practical hermeneutics for an interpretive community (student writing)—Elbow, Macroroie, North

Like the other two Scholarly modes of inquiry, it cannot be instrumental; in neither its theoretical nor applied form can it tell anyone what to do. If Historical inquiry gives us some access to who and what has come before; and Philosophical inquiry to the preconditions that lie behind the reasons we might use in deciding what to do; then what Hermeneutical inquiry provides is access to voices, our own and others: access to the nature of consciousness, in effect, and the way it makes the world in words. (Understanding the genius that informs these texts.)

Hermeneutical Inquiry

  1. Identify Problem(s)
    EMPERICAL STAGE
  2. Identifying Relevant Text(s)
  3. Searching for Text(s)
  4. Assembling and Validating Text(s)
    INTERPRETIVE STAGE
  5. Seeking Pattern(s) in the Text(s)
  6. Explaining the Pattern(s): Generating an Interpretation
  7. Relating New Interpretation to Existing Interpretation: The Communal Dialectic
  8. Dissemination to a Wider Audience

 

Leading figures: Not many. James Kinneavy

 

 

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This site contains direct excerpts from The Making of Knowledge in Composition by Stephen North. Portsmouth: Heineman, 1987.
Lirvin Researching | Site created by Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College (2007) | Last updated August 20, 2007