Quote: “We all approach the reading of texts with the baggage of our values and our experience, with certain categories, assumptions, prejudices and ‘fore-understandings’. To have such baggage is what it is to be a human being in history; without it we could not read it all.”
Comment: Following the idea of the baggage that shapes our experiences of reading any text, it reminds me of when people say to “separate the art from the artist” when referring to outdated or harmful messaging in any type of media, but it comes off as almost counterintuitive at times. If someone’s work is a byproduct of their own unconscious biases, prejudices, and beliefs, then it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the work from the person who wrote it when the work itself wouldn’t have existed in the first place if it wasn’t for the author. Similarly, as the reader, it is impossible to remove the feelings that are attached to what we read, and no matter what, that goes on to influence how we associate the text and our overall opinions on it.
Question: How does our evolving definition of the past contribute to how we ourselves see and interact with the material that comes out of that time?