For Sigurd Burckhardt literary interpretation began with the discovery of an ampampquotinconsistencyampampquot in a text. Minimizing the possibility that the writer has ampampquotunconsciouslyampampquot fallen into an inconsistency in the use of material the true interpreter Burckhardt believes abandons a tendency to ampampquotcorrectampampquot the writer and seeks instead a new formulation by which the inconsistency can be seen as a part of a workampamp39s essential unity. ampampquotWhether I search for the meaning of a word or for the meaning of my lifeampampquot he wrote ampampquotI am looking for something under which I can subsume the otherwise unrelated and meaningless particular so as to place it in a larger order.ampampquot That method so characteristic of Burckhardtampamp39s criticism underlies his studies of Goethe and Kleist and unifies the essays of this volume.