The world is full of intractable problems, and one common humanities response to them is to look for solutions in literature. (“If only we all read more Toni Morrison, we’d be in a much better state.”) This explicit or implicit promotion of literary texts as a source of answers relies, structurally speaking, on the use of interpretation as a basic method of inquiry. In this hermeneutic tradition, interpretive methods are used to extract useful meanings from the text. Cognitive approaches to literary study, by contrast, take a step back and direct their investigations onto acts of interpretation themselves—including the instincts that lead readers to seek answers, and the factors that determine whether they find them.

In this evening’s conversation, we’ll explore our own and each other’s takes on the method/object question, and ask what we might gain from trying out other ways of doing things. To get us ready to think and talk about interpretation, there are two pieces of preparatory reading:

• A 2018 article on “Interpretation: Its status as object or method of study in cognitive and unnatural narratology”—a paper whose creation involved some interestingly productive disagreements amongst the three coauthors! 
  

• A recently finished children's story called "The Shellfish Nest" to complement the critical with the creative and give us a focal point for conversation.