Interpretation As Pragmatics (Language, Discourse, Society)

Does interpretation have anything to do with truth? This new theory of interpretation denies this, yet it argues that some interpretations are false and some are just. These theses are justified through a pragmatic model of interpretation as a language-game involving five participants: an author, a text, a reader, a language, and an encyclopedia. The model claims to provide an account of both literary interpretation and face-to-face dialogue. The central intuition is that authorial intention is radically separated from textual meaning and that consequently, the reader's role is one of necessary imposture.