ABSTRACT
Literary interpretation traditionally begins at the point at which the meaning of a text is not self-evident. 1 In order to improve imperfect understanding of its meaning it is necessary for the interpreter either to supplement the text by adding to it information that readers previously lacked or to look at the text from a different point of vicw. 2 Most practical criticism is a mixture of these alternatives, and the roles they play in any particular critic's practice arc often difficult to disentangle, but in order to consider their respective claims it has proved convenient in the past to treat them separately and to regard them as being potentially antithetical.
