The Spoken and the Unspoken: A Hermeneutic Approach to Understanding the Cultural Viewpoints That Underlie Consumers' Expressed Meanings

This article draws on the philosophical concept of the hermeneutical circle to explore the cultural viewpoints that underlie the meanings expressed by consumers. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with adult female consumers. The interviews are interpreted first by the identification of an exemplary image or event that we describe as a symbolic metaphor. We show that these symbolic metaphors highlight key personal meanings that each participant ascribed to her consumer experiences. We then use a hermeneutic logic known as intertextual analysis to show that these personal meanings reflect more general cultural viewpoints that are implicitly conveyed in language. These intertextual interpretations offer insights into the sociocultural meanings that underlie skeptical, nostalgic, and pragmatic consumer orientations. A concluding discussion is given to key implications and areas for future research that follow from this hermeneutic approach. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.