Why some texts strike us to the core while others leave us untouched?
Why do some words echo in our souls?
This question can be answer by the hermeneutics of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer and the role of hermeneutics in reading.
Reading as a dialogue
Gadamer, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century, argued that understanding is never passive.
A text “addresses” us, calls us into dialogue. When a story resonates, it is not because it carries a fixed meaning that we merely decode, but because something in it speaks into our world, our history, our questions.
The novel, poem, or essay becomes a partner in conversation.
Some texts fail to resonate because we cannot hear their address; the dialogue does not find common ground. Others strike deeply because their “horizon” fuses with ours. In those moments, reading feels less like consumption and more like encounter.
The role of heuristics
Every reader brings mental shortcuts that shape interpretation.
These are the assumptions, cultural references and expectations that guide our reading.
Gadamer would call them prejudices (not in the negative sense, but as necessary pre-judgments).
For example, a 21st-century reader approaching Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein might see it not only as a Gothic tale but as a meditation on artificial intelligence. The resonance happens because our heuristics connect Shelley’s 19th-century imagination with our contemporary anxieties. The text becomes alive again, not as a museum piece, but as a voice in today’s debates.
When a text aligns with or challenges our heuristics in productive ways, it resonates.
When it speaks a language too foreign, without bridges to our horizon, it may remain silent.
The hermeneutical circle in action
Resonance is also a product of the hermeneutical circle: we project meaning, test it against the text, revise and return.
Imagine reading a poem by Emily Dickinson. At first, the imagery feels obscure. We project an interpretation: this line must be about death. But as we continue, the text resists that projection, forcing us to adjust: perhaps it is about eternity, not finality.
Through this back-and-forth, resonance emerges, not from instant clarity, but from the struggle to let the text shape us.
Gadamer insisted that understanding is never finished; it is an ongoing task of correcting our projections in light of “the things themselves.” Texts resonate more when they sustain this dynamic tension, keeping us in the game of interpretation rather than exhausting themselves in a single, closed meaning.
Literature as openness to alterity
Finally, resonance depends on our willingness to be open to alterity, the otherness of the text.
A novel by Toni Morrison or a play by Shakespeare can only resonate if we let their voices confront us. If we reduce them to clichés or force them into our frameworks, the dialogue collapses.
But when we listen, truly listen, the text becomes more than words. It is an invitation to expand our horizon, to see the world differently.
That transformation is the mark of resonance.
The resonant encounter
Why do some texts resonate more than others? Because they succeed in addressing us, in finding a fusion between their world and ours.
They activate our heuristics, challenge our projections and demand openness. Gadamer reminds us that resonance is not just about the text’s content but about the dynamic process of understanding.
In the end, resonant texts are those that change us.
They are not mirrors reflecting what we already know but windows that open onto new landscapes of meaning.
To read them is to be transformed, to enter into a dialogue that echoes long after the last word is read.
This text was written with reference of the article: Vlăduţescu, Ş. (2018). Six steps of hermeneutical process at H.-G. Gadamer. Postmodern Openings, 9(2), 161–174. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/26