The following comes from Donald G. Marshall's essay, "Literary Interpre-
tation" in  INTRODUCTION TO SCHOLARSHIP IN MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITER-
ATURES (MLA:1992), page 176. It doesn't address the problem of HF directly
but holds out a general principle that Deirdre Holmes and others might
use as a guide:
        "The need for interpreting arises when a text with which we
find ourselves concerned resists immediate absorption into the ongoing
stream of our practical life. In this moment of our incomprehension,
understanding cannot be coerced by argument or manufactured by method
or technique. It occurs when an interpreter finds a responsive word
through which the text speaks to us again, so that the varied meanings
and force of the text are activated in new and diverse contexts. What
word will accomplish this reactivation cannot be predicted or guaran-
teed. But our capacity to find that word is interpretation's humane
significance and the reason it remains at the heart of literary
study."

Gus Sponberg
Valparaiso University