Hermeneutics of poetic sense critical studies of literature, cinema, and cultural history - Valdés, Mario J. 1934-2020 (University of Toronto Press, 1998)
Includes bibliographical references (p. [157]-163) and index
1 - Hermeneutics in a Postmodern Context - Semiotics and Hermeneutics - Indeterminacy - Serendipity -- - 2 - Text and Self: Memory, the Other, the Community - Memory - The Cinematic Subject as Other - Identity and the Community -- - 3 - Text and Co-Text: Parody and the Game of Fiction - The Parodic Co-Text - The Game of Fiction -- - 4 - Period and Process: Postmodernity and the Literary Historical Process - Postmodernity in Spain and Latin America - The Literary Historical Process
In his earlier books, Shadows in the Cave (1982) and Phenomenological Hermeneutics and the Study of Literature (1987), Mario Valdes laid the foundation for his phenomenological-hermeneutic approach to literary criticism. With this book he continues the development of his ideas, using his views of literature, cinema, and art to unravel what he calls 'the imaginative configuration of the world, the cultural phenomenon of making sense, poetic sense, of life.'
The book takes the form of a collection of studies dealing with a variety of key issues in literary theory. A central theme is the role of the reader in assigning meaning to written works. Literature is understood in its capacity to make sense of certain basic aspects of human experience, including the quest for order in the universe; personal identity over time, a definition of the self with respect to the other, and a definition of the self as a member of a cultural community