View source for Philosophy:Hermeneutics of suspicion

{{Short description|Literary interpretation style that uses skepticism to expose hidden meaning}}
The '''hermeneutics of suspicion''' is a style of [[Philosophy:Hermeneutics|literary interpretation]] in which texts are read with [[Skepticism|skepticism]] in order to expose their purported repressed or hidden meanings.<ref name= ":0">{{cite journal |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 }}</ref>

This mode of interpretation was conceptualized by [[Biography:Paul Ricœur|Paul Ricœur]], inspired by the works of what he called the three "'''masters of suspicion'''"<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> ({{lang-fr|maîtres du soupçon}}):<ref name= ":01">{{cite book |last= Ricoeur |first=Paul |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=[[Place:Paris|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].</ref> [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]], [[Biography:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]], and [[Biography:Friedrich Nietzsche|Friedrich Nietzsche]],<ref name= ":1">{{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].</ref>{{rp|33, 35}} who, he believed, shared a similar view of [[False consciousness|consciousness as false]].<ref>"[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.</ref> Ricœur's term "'''school of suspicion'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->" ({{lang-fr|école du soupçon}})<ref name= ":02">{{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].</ref> refers to his association of his theory with the writings of the three, who themselves never used this term,<ref name= ":2">Ricœur, Paul (2008), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=oHXFRv7SUrcC&pg=PA32 32].</ref>{{rp|32}} and was coined in ''Freud and Philosophy'' (1965).<ref name= ":1" /><ref name= ":2" /><ref>Dole, Andrew. 2018. ''Reframing the Masters of Suspicion: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=xsB2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 p. 2].</ref>{{rp|2}} This school is defined by a belief that the straightforward appearances of texts are [[Social:Deception|deceptive]] or [[Self-deception|self-deceptive]] and that explicit content hides deeper meanings or [[Philosophy:Implicature|implication]]s.<ref name= ":0" /><ref>{{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}}.</ref>

==Overview==
[[Biography:Hans-Georg Gadamer|Hans-Georg Gadamer]], in his 1960 magnum opus ''Truth and Method'' (German: ''Wahrheit und Methode''), offers perhaps the most systematic survey of [[Philosophy:Hermeneutics|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.<ref>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].</ref>{{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."<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Josselson |first= Ruthellen |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=[[Place:Amsterdam|Amsterdam]]|publisher=[[Company:John Benjamins Publishing Company|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}}</ref><ref>Scott-Baumann, A. 2009, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=0CAEZx5ia1cC Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion]'', London & New York: Continuum.</ref>

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 [[Philosophy:Illusion|illusion]]s of [[Philosophy:Consciousness|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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Felski|first= Rita  |year=2012 |title=Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion|url= http://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}}</ref>}}

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."<ref>{{cite journal |last= Felski |first=Rita |title= Context Stinks |url=http://kclunc19.web.unc.edu/files/2014/10/FelskiRita-Context-Stinks.pdf |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}}</ref> In that sense, it can be seen as being related to [[Philosophy:Critique of ideology|ideology critique]]. Felski has built on Ricœur's theory in outlining her influential theory of [[Philosophy:Postcritique|postcritique]].<ref>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.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Philosophy:Critical theory|Critical theory]]
* [[Biography:Michel Foucault|Michel Foucault]]
* Sheldon Pollock
* [[Philosophy:Freudo-Marxism|Freudo-Marxism]]
* [[Philosophy:Post-structuralism|Post-structuralism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}


{{Sourceattribution|Hermeneutics of suspicion}}