Understanding Narrative Hermeneutics

Abstract

Th is essay off ers two readings of its title. One takes the words understanding, narrative, and hermeneutics as nouns that stand for diff erent though interrelated notions; the other proposes an understanding of hermeneutics as an approach to human reality in which narrative plays a crucial role. Th e fi rst reading could be said to be concerned with three distinct notions and their overlap and interplay, being aware that each term is unfolded in a broader tradition of its own. Th ere are, for example, more forms and practices of human understanding and meaningmaking than those we call narrative; there is more to narrative than that it enacts processes of understanding; and hermeneutics is a fi eld of inquiry that reaches beyond not only processes of narrative understanding but also beyond processes of understanding in general (acknowledging the border zones and limits of understanding). It is with this in mind that we want to point out that, and show how, the hermeneutic approach explores in-