Phenomenology: From Philosophy to Literary Criticism

Abstract

This study traces the trajectory of phenomenology, a philosophical movement first systematized and established by Edmund Husserl, and later taken up by Martin Heidegger, who enriched and expanded it within an ontological horizon that links it directly to the question of Being. Phenomenology subsequently extended into the field of hermeneutics through the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, who laid its interpretive foundations and broadened its scope. Under his guidance, phenomenology underwent a qualitative transformation, opening the way for the critical interrogation and understanding of the text within both historical and linguistic horizons. This intellectual context illuminates the movement of phenomenology from a primary concern with consciousness and intentionality to a sustained inquiry into Being itself, allowing for its critical application in literary discourse analysis. The study focuses particularly on concepts such as intentionality, time, and history, while also tracing the impact of these philosophical shifts on the development of modern critical approaches, notably hermeneutics and reception theory, and extending to their deconstructive elaborations in the work of Jacques Derrida. Within this framework, meaning emerges not as a fixed property of the text, but as the product of a dynamic and reciprocal interaction between text and reader.