Verstehen and Narrative

Abstract

Abstract Human understanding or verstehen is the central matter of hermeneutics. This chapter fuses the horizons of hermeneutic and narrative studies in exploring forms and practices of verstehen that are closely intermingled with a specific type of language, narrative language. The author is concerned with the narrative “deep structure” of verstehen, with the forms and practices of narrative that allow people to understand complex human realities. At the same time, the author investigates the hermeneutic dynamic of narrative processes, a dynamic that is involved whenever people try to understand these realities. This corroborates the assumption that stories and storytelling imply an array of interpretive operations and strategies. Drawing on earlier work on “narrative hermeneutics,” it is suggested that one of the main projects of this approach deals with this nexus of narrative and verstehen. An important element of this view is to conceive of verstehen not primarily as an intellectual operation to acquire knowledge but as an existential practice inherent to the human existence.