Reading Comprehension: Interpretation and Hermeneutics
XAT 2023 · VALR · Hard · Reading Comprehension
Passage / data set
Read the following passage and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Interpretation in our own time, however, is even more complex. For the contemporary zeal for the project of interpretation is often prompted not by piety toward the troublesome text (which may conceal an aggression), but by an open aggressiveness, an overt contempt for appearances. The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs "behind" the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one. The most celebrated and influential modern doctrines, those of Marx and Freud, actually amount to elaborate systems of hermeneutics, aggressive and impious theories of interpretation. All observable phenomena are bracketed, in Freud's phrase, as manifest content. This manifest content must be probed and pushed aside to find the true meaning—the latent content beneath. For Marx, social events like revolutions and wars; for Freud, the events of individual lives (like neurotic symptoms and slips of the tongue) as well as texts (like a dream or a work of art)—all are treated as occasions for interpretation. According to Marx and Freud, these events only seem to be intelligible. Actually, they have no meaning without interpretation. To understand is to interpret. And to interpret is to restate the phenomenon, in effect to find an equivalent for it.
Thus, interpretation is not (as most people assume) an absolute value, a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities. Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. It is a means of revising, of transvaluing, of escaping the dead past. In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly and stifling.
Question 1 of 3
What does the author mean by "Thus, interpretation is not…a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities?"
- A.
Interpretation is being evaluative of the meaning created by an authority.
- B.
Interpretation is an act of mind which is situated in a changeless domain.
- C.
Interpretation is about erecting another meaning on top of the literal one.
- D.
Interpretation is act of understanding, developed by timeless experts.
- E.
Interpretation is about revisiting and reinventing meanings.
Question 2 of 3
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT an act of interpretation?
- A.
Searching for underlying themes in a historical document
- B.
Finding underlying causes of a social evil described in a book
- C.
Labelling a text as blasphemous
- D.
Critical appreciation of a literary text
- E.
Investigating class-conflict in Charles Dicken's novels
Question 3 of 3
Which of the following BEST differentiates manifest content from the latent content?
- A.
Manifest content is apparent whereas latent content is hidden
- B.
Manifest content is loaded whereas latent content is elusive
- C.
Manifest content is natural whereas latent content is cultural
- D.
Manifest content is obscure whereas latent content is lucid
- E.
Manifest content is a superset whereas latent content is a subset
Practise this under exam conditions
Sign in to solve it with a live timer, the on-screen CAT calculator, and streak and accuracy tracking across every question you attempt.
Solve in the workspace