Vol. 6, No. 1 (2010): 25–45.
Abstract
The following is an attempt to view and perceive the problematic act of interpretation, including its nature, its endless controversies, its horizons and its limitations. The paper is comprised of two sections. The first is an introduction covering the various aspects of the interpretive act. It also deals with the vast potentialities opened up by interpretation. The second section shows some of the limitations of interpretation, as seen in the different interpretations of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The approach used throughout is ambivalent in that it stresses the merits and drawbacks of interpretation in reading and understanding texts.
Author’s bio
Sabbar S. Sultan is associate professor of modern English literature at Al Isra University, Amman, Jordan. His latest publications include “The Critical vs. the Industrial in David Lodge’s Nice Work”, International Journal of Arabic and English Studies, Lebanon, (Oct., 2009) (forthcoming); “The Artist-Community Relationship in Hawthorne’s Story ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’,” Journal of the Society of Faculties of Arts in the Arab World, University of Yarmouk, Irbid, Jordan (Feb. 2010) (forthcoming); “The Sciences-Humanities Controversy Revisited”, International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (www.usm.my/ijaps/) 4, 2 (Nov. 2008): 1–38; “The Poetic Space of Robert Frost and Mahmoud Al Breikan”, Journal of the Society of Faculties of Arts in the Arab World, Yarmouk University, 5, 2 (2008): 27–57; and, “Silence and its Discontents in Literature”, Dirasat, University of Jordan, Amman, 4 (Dec. 2007): 680–696.
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