# PTE Reading MCS #2: Phenomenological...

Reading: Multiple Choice, Single Answer #2 - Level 1 - Feeds Reading

> Read the text and answer the question by choosing one option. Only one answer is correct.

The ethical quandaries surrounding issues of subjectivity and the interpretation of art often revolve around the questions of who is representing, who is represented, and who is looking; and around how these dynamics produce and reproduce visual systems of power on the basis of gender, race, and libidinal desire. On a slightly different trajectory, phenomenology interrogates how we interpret in the first place. Though it presumes that the artwork and the spectator situate one another within a shared network of sense, this is not to say that information is easily communicated between them. The viewer's task is not to ascertain the artwork's objective meaning, but rather to respond to the artwork with the question, 'how does this artwork mean to me?' The ethical charge of this questioning lies in its acknowledgment that the meaning of the artwork is not inherent but rather presents itself to the spectator, historian, or critic through the body's actions, reactions, or non-actions. The meaning may be either enabled or encumbered by the viewer's response to the artwork.

What is the author's main purpose in this paragraph?

- To explain the ethical problems encountered in interpreting works of art.
- To explain the phenomenological approach to the interpretation of art.
- To explain how viewers can go about interpreting works of art.
- To explain that the meaning of an artwork is not inherent.

## Answer

To explain the phenomenological approach to the interpretation of art.

## Explanation

The passage explicitly introduces phenomenology as a framework to interrogate how interpretation occurs, shifting the focus from external power dynamics to the internal experience of the viewer.

## Hints

- Look for the specific term that defines the shift in the author's argument after the first few sentences.
- The text discusses ethics initially, but the primary focus is on a specific philosophical method of interpretation.

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