Peter Szondi is widely regarded as being among the most distinguished postwar literary critics. This first English edition of one of his most lucid and interesting series of lectures, translated by Martha Woodmansee and with a foreword by Joel Weinsheimer, opens up his work in hermeneutics to English-speaking readers. Peter Szondi here traces the historical development of hermeneutics through examination of the work of German Enlightenment theorists, which yields valuable insights into the "material theory" of interpretation.