Thursday, October 8, 2009

Gadamer on Teaching from Old Notes

In a certain sense interpretation probably is re-creation, but this is a re-creation not of the creative act but of the created work, which has to be brought to representation in accord with the meaning the interpreter finds in it. Thus, for example, historicizing presentations--e.g., of music played on old instruments --are not as faithful as they seem. Rather, they are an imitation of an imitation and are thus in danger "of standing at a third remove from the truth" (Plato). - Truth and Method (1960, repr. Continuum, 2004), 118.

Gadamer, of course, is talking primarily about drama as artistic representation, but I think there are analogies to teaching understood as performance.

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