Overinterpretation [Überdeutung]

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

In his

Interpretation of Dreams

(1900) Freud argued that because dream-thoughts were over-determined dreams might need to be interpreted several times in order to be understood. Each act of interpretation might produce a reading which was only partially consistent with other interpretations, since the dream-thoughts were themselves the products of condensation, displacement and over-determination. Freud.s theory of dream interpretation thus comes close to the fact of literary interpretation where it seems culturally and individually necessary to produce reading after reading of texts, and where each successive reading does not necessarily invalidate former readings. The aim of such reading is clearly to fulfil some individual need to .make sense., perhaps to recuperate something that…

186 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Overinterpretation [Überdeutung]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=803, accessed 19 March 2024.]

803 Overinterpretation [Überdeutung] 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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