Questions asking for general, open-ended, interpretation of a text. Use this tag if you want answers that address all and any aspects of the text: its meaning, atmosphere, style, images, structure, references, context, and so on. Best used on short texts only.
Questions tagged interpretation are asking for general, open-ended, interpretation of a text. Answers may cover:
- the meaning of the text as a whole;
- the text’s atmosphere and style;
- glosses of difficult passages;
- figurative language and rhetorical devices;
- formal structures like metre, lines, and stanzas;
- references, allusions and other forms of intertextuality;
- historical, social, or intellectual context;
- existing scholarly critiques of the text;
- application of a theory to the text;
- anything else about the text that can be backed up by evidence.
Interpretations are not required or expected to be comprehensive: the hope is that multiple answers will approach the text from different perspectives.
This tag is best used on short texts only: ideally, texts that are short enough to quote in full.
