The Hermeneutics of Computer-Generated Texts

• Main Authors: Henrickson, L. (Author), Meroño-Peñuela, A. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2022
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 As cultural circumstances become increasingly digital, the importance of theoretical frameworks guiding calculated consider-ations of authorial intention and reader response is being reaffirmed. The framework proposed in this article is that of hermeneutics: the study of understanding, of processes of meaning-making. Although explicit application of hermeneutics has fallen out of fashion, the field is especially valuable for critically approaching digital texts. This article thus serves as a reintroduction to hermeneutics, particularly for digital textual study. It offers an overview of historical hermeneutical views, and then applies a hermeneutics perspective to a new kind of text made possible by digital technologies: computer-generated prose. Through analysis and repurposing of OpenAI’s GPT-2 software, this paper argues that the reintegration of hermeneutics in digital textual studies may contribute to more comprehensive understandings of both human and computer intention, especially in instances of com-puter-generated texts. Digital technologies are changing conventional understandings of authorship and reader responsibility; hermeneutics helps us understand what these changes are, how they have come to be, and why they matter. © 2022 by Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts.