Abstract

The aim of this paper is to try to support the idea that past plays an esential role in the process of interpretation of a present utterance/text. Past takes the form of hypotheses, prejudices, prejudgments, ideologies, preferences, etc., stored in the mind of the interpreter, which shape her/his psychological identity. Identity can only come from the past. One’s psychological identity is the present situation of her/his stored past. It seems that in the process of interpretation one’s present self confronts one’s past self which has become the otherness of the present self. The process of interpretation is a fusion between the horizon of the past and the horizon of the present - both from the interpreter’s point of view.