hermeneutics of suspicion
{{Short description|Literary interpretation style that uses skepticism to expose hidden meaning}}
The hermeneutics of suspicion is a style of literary interpretation in which texts are read with skepticism in order to expose their purported repressed or hidden meanings.{{cite journal |author-link=Rita Felski |author=Felski, Rita |year=2011 |title=Suspicious Minds |journal=Poetics Today |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=215–234 |doi= 10.1215/03335372-1261208|doi-access=free }}
This mode of interpretation was conceptualized by Paul Ricœur, inspired by the works of what he called the three "masters of suspicion" ({{langx|fr|maîtres du soupçon}}):{{cite book |last= Ricoeur |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Ricœur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-U9AgAAQBAJ |title=Le Conflit des interprétations. Essais d'herméneutique |date=2013 |publisher=Média Diffusion |isbn=978-2-02114500-7 |location=Paris}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=d-U9AgAAQBAJ&q=%22maîtres+du+soupçon%22 Quote]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=U3IKAQAAIAAJ&q=%22maîtres+du+soupçon%22 1st ed: 1969]. Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche,{{cite book |last= Ricoeur |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHXFRv7SUrcC |title=Freud and Philosophy. An Essay on Interpretation |date=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |others= Denis Savage (transl.) |isbn=978-8-12083305-0 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oHXFRv7SUrcC&q=%22masters+of+suspicion%22 33, 35]}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=FyeHc74riT0C 1st ed: 1970].{{rp|33, 35}} who, he believed, shared a similar view of consciousness as false."[https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_293563/UQ293563_OA.pdf?Expires=1616060404&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=CmTeNqc231kTfcI-K852MBVwn0wJHwbFvtiYUlIRq2QsO1-tWUDCxMlq2sfmE-~-16htL~XZYyI9r5tEbvolKKN-p20Y0m2KAC5O7t2oTolnUa74sWF-UoPgsEKlIiCwpMX4SD4VrWrGXJXVhG8K0dOpFIBjCbHAL8PQgj8FkpWjfH1EqaXmrcu4~qLkZuJuMbLTnlyR4yFoLBnXTJR4z-vhAoszrHvTy7qmWkK9h5nAfBn1vibPLW7bbdoinN4cz5Ywp7-UVEAkSsaddUCDOmDmMnXd~9tnLsepoqppaypxqRkFNK8YzfXXyrTrsPQrKtrYvj8qE-Dsi0hPyBqwaA__ The Homme Fatal and the Subversion of Suspicion in 'Mr Brooks' and 'The Killer Inside Me']." AU: UQ. Ricœur's term "school of suspicion" ({{langx|fr|école du soupçon}}){{cite book |last= Ricoeur |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hz0_AwAAQBAJ |title=De l'interprétation. Essai sur Freud |date=2014 |publisher=Média Diffusion |isbn=978-2-02106836-8 |location=Paris}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hz0_AwAAQBAJ&q=%22école+du+soupçon%22 Quote]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JecDAQAAIAAJ&q=%22école+du+soupçon%22 1st ed: 1965]. refers to his association of his theory with the writings of the three, who themselves never used this term,Ricœur, Paul (2008), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=oHXFRv7SUrcC&pg=PA32 32].{{rp|32}} and was coined in Freud and Philosophy (1965).Dole, Andrew. 2018. Reframing the Masters of Suspicion: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xsB2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 p. 2].{{rp|2}} This school is defined by a belief that the straightforward appearances of texts are deceptive or self-deceptive and that explicit content hides deeper meanings or implications.{{Citation | first = G. D. | last = Robinson| title = Paul Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion: A Brief Overview and Critique | publisher = University of Toronto Press | url = http://individual.utoronto.ca/bmclean/hermeneutics/ricoeur_suppl/Ricoeur_Herm_of_Suspicion.htm}}.
Overview
Hans-Georg Gadamer, in his 1960 magnum opus Truth and Method (German: Wahrheit und Methode), offers perhaps the most systematic survey of hermeneutics in the 20th century. The title of the work indicates his dialogue between claims of "truth" on the one hand and the processes of "method" on the other—in brief, the hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion. Gadamer suggests that, ultimately, one must decide between one and the other when reading.Jasper, D., A Short Introduction to Hermeneutics (Louisville, KY & London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TvgkY_eSVrwC&pg=PA106 pp. 106–107].{{rp|106–107}}
Ruthellen Josselson similarly writes, "Ricoeur distinguishes between two forms of hermeneutics: a hermeneutics of faith which aims to restore meaning to a text and a hermeneutics of suspicion which attempts to decode meanings that are disguised."{{Cite journal|last= Josselson |first= Ruthellen |author-link= Ruthellen Josselson|date= 1 July 2004|title=The Hermeneutics of Faith and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233497680|journal= Narrative Inquiry|location=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |volume= 14|issue=1|pages=1–28|doi= 10.1075/ni.14.1.01jos |issn=1387-6740|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160206142102/http://ruthellenjosselson.com/articles/josselson.ni.14-1.1e.pdf |archive-date=6 February 2016}}Scott-Baumann, A. 2009, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0CAEZx5ia1cC Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion], London & New York: Continuum.
According to literary theorist Rita Felski, hermeneutics of suspicion is "a distinctively modern style of interpretation that circumvents obvious or self-evident meanings in order to draw out less visible and less flattering truths." Felski further writes:
{{Blockquote | [Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche] share a commitment to unmasking 'the lies and illusions of consciousness'; they are the architects of a distinctively modern style of interpretation that circumvents obvious or self-evident meanings in order to draw out less visible and less flattering truths… Ricoeur's term has sustained an energetic after-life within religious studies, as well as in philosophy, intellectual history, and related fields.{{Cite journal|last=Felski|first= Rita |year=2012 |title=Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion|url= https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/431 |journal= M/C Journal |volume=15 |doi= 10.5204/mcj.431 |doi-access=free |number= 1}}}}
Felski also notes that the "'hermeneutics of suspicion' is the name usually bestowed on [a] technique of reading texts against the grain and between the lines, of cataloging their omissions and laying bare their contradictions, of rubbing in what they fail to know and cannot represent."{{cite journal |last= Felski |first= Rita |title= Context Stinks! |url= https://libraopen.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/9g54xh73m |journal= New Literary History |publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press |location= Baltimore, Maryland |date= Autumn 2011 |volume= 42 |issue= 4 |pages= 573–91 |doi= 10.1353/nlh.2011.0045 |s2cid= 201779165 |access-date= 2017-06-26 |archive-date= 2018-04-24 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180424115753/http://kclunc19.web.unc.edu/files/2014/10/FelskiRita-Context-Stinks.pdf |url-status= dead }} In that sense, it can be seen as being related to ideology critique. Felski has built on Ricœur's theory in outlining her influential theory of postcritique.Giusti, F., [https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/passionate-affinities-a-conversation-with-rita-felski/ "Passionate Affinities: A Conversation with Rita Felski"], Los Angeles Review of Books, September 25, 2019.