Abstract

The Critical Circle investigates the hermeneutical circle involved in historical inquiry and literary criticism. Hoy attempts to analyze the interrelation of literary understanding and historical understanding, arguing for the essential interconnection of understanding, interpretation, and criticism. For Hoy, the account of the conditions for the possibility of understanding reveals the conditions for understanding and interpretation and sets the stage for explicating the role of criticism. According to the hermeneutical account, the understanding is conditioned by self-understanding, which is "conditioned by the tradition in which it stands and the continuing community of researchers to which it relates". Such a hermeneutic rejects certain extreme dichotomies such as: objectivism-subjectivism; past-present; immanence-transcendence; literary understanding-historical understanding.