SOURCE: “Hermeneutics as Desire,” in Delicate Subjects: Romanticism, Gender, and the Ethics of Understanding, Cornell University Press, 1990, pp. 63-99.

In the following excerpt, Ellison studies Schleiermacher's approach to interpretive theory through an examination of his major texts.

The “system-subject”

After the publication in 1806 of his dialogue Christmas Eve, his last work in an early romantic mode, Schleiermacher's engagement with readers outside academic circles took the form of sermons and statements on public affairs.¹ During the uncertain years of the French invasion and occupation of Prussia (1806-14), Schleiermacher was first appointed lecturer at the University of Halle and preacher at the University Church; after his move to Berlin in 1807, he became preacher at Trinity Church in 1809 and professor at the newly formed University of Berlin, inaugurated in the same year. From his Berlin pulpit and chair, he urged a vehement but increasingly critical nationalism and set forth a pragmatic...