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CUMULATIVE IMPRESSION

CUMULATIVE IMPRESSION: A simple way of illustrating the hermeneutic circle, even as it avoids the closure thus produced. When audiences encounter a work of art for the first time, they will get a first impression of what it is about. Perhaps when they learn something specific about the artist, their interpretations will veer in the direction of artistic biography. Or if they learned that the work was for a powerful patron, the interpretation would veer towards one of the correlational social histories in a modest form. Similarly, any responses communicated to them -- even ones that are totally irresponsible subjective impressionism -- will also add to the process. Presumably, unless they have closed minds by nature, any subsequent impression which could have an impact on their understanding will cause interpretations to veer in yet another direction (or corroborate and strengthen the first one). Impressions thus accumulate, and the experience of the art is enriched by lived experience. Since the process is theoretically endless, the hermeneutic circle cannot close and the ascending accumulation of meaning is really a spiral (see hermeneutic spiral). The process may play a significant role in multiple locatedness and polysemy.

 

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