Bibliography: leaves 97-101. / The aim of this paper is, firstly, to consider a contemporary literary methodology, that of Paul Ricoeur, and secondly, to critique that methodology from the perspective of a sharply contextual approach, in association with a materialist theory of literature, such as that emerging from the South African context. Ricoeur's position is useful as a starting point because of the eclectic make up of his theory. His work includes aspects of the historical critical approach, psychoanalytic theory, structuralism, philosophy and a response to materialist thinking. We are, however, choosing to restrict ourselves to the more recent work of Ricoeur corresponding broadly to the period 1975-1990. In this period Ricoeur's concentration shifts from the hermeneutics of symbol to the hermeneutics of language.